Father of the Lost Boys

This the true story of a teacher and community leader, Mecak Ajang Alaak, who led twenty thousands Lost Boys to safety during the Second Sudanese Civil War. During the Second Sudanese Civil War, thousands of South Sudanese boys were displaced from their villages or orphaned in attacks from northern government troops. Many became refugees in Ethiopia. There, in 1989, teacher and community leader Mecak Ajang Alaak assumed care of the Lost Boys in a bid to protect them from becoming child soldiers. So began a four-year journey from Ethiopia to Sudan and on to the safety of a Kenyan refugee camp. Together they endured starvation, animal attacks and the horrors of landmines and aerial bombardment. This eyewitness account by Mecak's son, Yuot, is the extraordinary true story of a man who never ceased to believe that the pen is mightier than the gun.

Yuot A. Alaak comes from the village of Majak in South Sudan's Jonglei State and migrated to Australia as a refugee with his parents in May 1995. He now calls himself a proud South Sudanese Australian and lives in Perth with his family.