Khan Turoke
Event: The Second Sudanese Civil War
On July 12th, 1977, Khan Turoke was born in a small Village on the border of South Sudan and Ethiopia. Khan grew up in the middle class. Both of his parents were teachers and that's what inspired him to become one. He had a very normal childhood. He would go to school, study, come home then play with his neighborhood friends. Everything was pretty normal until the ongoing war between South Sudan and the Sudanese Government started to heat up. The Second Sudanese Civil War was a huge conflict fought between the central Sudanese government and the people of the southern part of Sudan. This event took place from 1983 to 2005. It was basically a continuation from the First Sudanese Civil War.
Because of this war my father, mother, and brother(age 3 at the time) had to immigrate to the United States. The war was very deadly, there was an estimate that two million have died and more than four million have been displaced. My father, mother, and brother were part of that four million that's has been displaced. After a little bit my parents got married, they moved to Kenya to settle down there. After a few months of horrid living conditions and only eating a few times a week they decided to move back to Sudan, hoping that the war has cooled down. Once back in Sudan, they had a child and named him Goy. Once again, after living in horrible conditions my parents decided to go to Ethiopia to live near/with my grandparents.
One of the memories my father remembers is having to walk ten miles everyday just to get water. Because of the war, many people living in extreme poverty including my parents. My father tried everything to get food on the table for my mother and brother. But since the war has been happening everywhere, it was hard for my father to look for work or even stay in a stable home. After years of struggling, my father finally found some work as a teacher. He was inspired to be one from my grandparents. He taught English for a few years, but since the central government looked down on giving education to both male and females the school got closed down. Then again my father had to find a new job.
After all, the war, death, debt, and grieving from the war, my family decided to move to America. Since the war was still going on, it took a while for them to get out. On March 1999 my parents successfully came to America. Because they lived in such poor conditions in Sudan and Ethiopia they didn't have such much or a place to live until my mother got contact with her sister. For a while they lived with my aunt until they got on their feet.
Just because my parents weren't in Sudan for the rest of the war, doesn't mean they weren't affected by it. My father became very more involved with the Sudanese politics and became part of Sudanese Minnesota Council . He went to meetings, raised fundraisers for survivors, and sent food to camps. War affected a big part of his life for the worse, but it did give good after effects. He now sleeps, works, and lives peacefully.
