As we travel across the country, LA2DC is honoring the accomplishments of individuals and organizations doing the difficult work of genocide and mass atrocity detection and prevention, and providing survivor relief. LA2DC is proud to recognize the Lost Boys Center for Leadership Development and it’s work with refugees from Sudan.

For years now, the Arizona Lost Boys Center in Phoenix has been a home base for refugees who fled Sudan for the U.S. to escape their country’s civil war.

Changing its name,The Lost Boys Center for Leadership Development will offer training and a fellowship in South Sudan where the men can use their education and skills to help rebuild their home country.
As many as 27,000 “Lost Boys,” a nickname given to the displaced children, fled their villages to escape a war that began in 1983 and lasted more than 20 years.

With about 600 Lost Boys living in Arizona, the state has the nation’s largest concentration of such refugees.
The boys who turned to the community center for support and fellowship since it opened in 2003 have grown into men.

The Lost Boys Center for Leadership Development will focus on bringing together the global community of Sudanese refugees who want to return to their country to support democracy and opportunity in South Sudan.

The center has started fundraising to form a leadership-training program that will include a service fellowship in Sudan.
“These are men who value education,” said center spokeswoman Kadi Tierney. “They’ve survived so much. They all have different skills to offer.”

As told to The Republic/azcentral.com on January 5, 2012

LA2DC is organized and supported by Americans of all backgrounds and faiths and Armenian-Americans who believe that it’s time to eliminate genocide as a war tactic. On the centennial of the first large-scale genocide of the 20th century, LA2DC demands recognition and prevention of such atrocities and calls on world leaders to stop future genocides.