God Grew Tired of Us: Film Screening and Panel Discussion

To escape extermination or sterilization by government forces from the north, the “Lost Boys of Sudan”, as they came to be known, fled South Sudan by themselves in the 1980s, at ages 3 to 13, enduring starvation, dehydration, disease, wild animals and attacks by soldiers (only half of the original 20,000 boys survived the journey). As recounted in Christopher Dillon Quinn and Tommy Walker’s documentary “God Grew Tired of Us,” the young men’s reaction to their eventual resettlement in the United States, after 15 years traveling on their own by foot through Africa and then living in a rudimentary refugee camp in Kenya, will surprise you, move you, raise your awareness (if you are not an immigrant yourself) of the countless challenges faced by individuals who have immigrated to the United States, and cause you to reflect on the positives and negatives of American culture and its effects on health and mental health. The panel discussion, featuring faculty from the Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences’ Master of Public Health program, as well as Nathaniel Nyok, founder of Sudanese-American Voices for Educational Services, who was himself a “lost boy,” will explore issues related to war, poverty, immigration, cultural awareness, mental health, public health,global health, racism and social justice.