Madit Deng

Joined ALA in 2011

I was born in Warrap State, South Sudan, and my parents were subsistence farmers with herds of cattle and goats. Growing up in a farming life, I had the role of herding goats. At that time, children did not attend school because the civil war between the north and south prevented schooling in most southern states.

In 1996, my family was forced from the south by the civil war. The southern area was the battle zone, and my family and I had to move northward for our lives. We lived under oppression and slavery as we moved through northern states, striving for survival. In 1999, I made my way to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, to my elder stepmother for a chance of getting an education.

In Khartoum, I attended school for the first time at the age of about seven years old. In 2001, I came to Cairo, Egypt with the rest of my family to pursue the dream of getting resettlement through the UNHCR to another country. We weren’t able to get resettlement to another country, so we ended up staying in Cairo.

Before I came to ALA, I was in a school called St. Andrew’s refugee school. St. Andrew’s was the first English-instructing school I attended; the rest were Arabic schools. At St. Andrew’s, I led a rap/hip hop band called “Future Boys.” The band was formed to motivate South Sudanese youth who engaged in violence. They loved music, rap and hip hop, and we encouraged them to enter competitions to produce and perform music, which would keep them busy and spending less time on the streets.

One school day, my school director called me into her office where she told me about ALA. I applied and qualified for the finalist event, but I did not make it to the academy. Therefore, I reapplied when the admissions committee team sent me a message congratulating me on my efforts and having reached the finalist event. The second time, I made it to ALA’s campus.

After ALA, I would like to go to university to further my studies and start social enterprises. I’m currently working on some products with ALA’s Leadership and Entrepreneurship Department. I want to establish a plastic recycling factory and a library that will provide learning facilities for local students and the general public.