Richmond student recognized by VH1 for work in Sudan

University of Richmond student Manyang Reath was standing on a plot of farmland on the border of Sudan and Ethiopia this summer when he received a call from VH1.

"They called my phone and said, 'Where are you?'" Reath said. He laughed when he recalled that his first thought had been, "Why do you want to know?"

VH1 had selected Reath, 24, founder of the Humanity Helping Sudan project, as a finalist in the 2012 Do Something Awards for his efforts to provide Sudanese refugees with farmland and other trade resources. The station was calling to invite Reath to appear on its nationally televised awards show on Aug. 19 in Los Angeles and offer him $10,000 to support his organization.

Born in Sudan, Reath became a victim of the country's violent civil war at an early age. According to VH1's account of his life, Reath's father was one of 2.5 million people killed in the war, and when Reath was three, he was forced out of his home by northern militant groups, rushed across the border by his uncle and separated from his mother and sister. Reath said he was a refugee, traveling from camp to camp on the border of Ethiopia, one of the 20,000 boys displaced by the war known as The Lost Boys of Sudan.

After 13 years living as a refugee, a Catholic charity gave him the opportunity to move to the Virginia Home for Boys and Girls in Richmond. Two years later, he had already begun work on the Humanity Helping Sudan project.

The project, based on the border of Sudan and Ethiopia, is a non-profit organization that gives refugees the chance to live by trade. It provides the resources necessary for refugees to raise chickens, fish in the Nile River, sew clothing and farm. Reath said it had even created a trade school where refugees could learn how to dig wells, irrigate soil and more.

"The tools are very simple," Reath said. "They work well because they do what people need. You can be a fisherman for the rest of your life."

Having lived in the camps for 13 years, Reath understands how important learning a trade can be for these Sudanese refugees.

"You don't want to be there for 20 years, 30 years, 60 years," he said. "We're human. We want families. A man in a refugee camp can never provide for his family."

The beginnings of Humanity Helping Sudan were modest. Reath spoke about his ideas with family and friends, communicated through Facebook and finally started buying land and resources with only $5,000 in donations, he said.

But with dedicated volunteers such as Bolaji Oyegunle, a 25-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University student from Maryland, Humanity Helping Sudan quickly grew. Oyegunle said he met Reath in February of 2010 at a Sudan fundraiser, and since then, Reath has been keeping him busy.

"The reason I liked working with him is that he didn't know what my strengths were," Oyegunle said. "He just gave me things to do."

Oyegunle has designed t-shirt logos for the project and often writes and edits for the Humanity Helping Sudan web site. Working with Reath, he said, had made him want to visit not only Sudan, but also Nigeria, where his family was from.

Now, Reath said he was in the process of expanding his organization, mainly by creating a larger irrigation system for the farmland he had purchased: a project that would consume $60,000-$70,000. Add that to Reath's plans to increase the amount of land he buys each year, and his fundraising goal becomes more than $100,000.

"I want to be the biggest charity in Eastern Africa," he said. He thinks the contacts he made through VH1 will help him get there.

In Los Angeles, Reath met a long list of celebrities, including Ne-Yo, Flo Rida and Beyonce. The $10,000 he won will contribute to his new irrigation system, but Reath said he also saw the potential in these new contacts.

"I can talk to Beyonce's management easily," he said. "It's easy for me to say 'Come to my event. Can you raise money for me? Can you donate?'" Reath called his exposure on VH1 "an open door" for him and his organization.

Reath has also been invited to speak at the United Nations from Sept. 9 through Sept. 22, where he will discuss the situation in Sudan and what his organization is doing to help.

In watching Reath develop Humanity Helping Sudan over the past few years, Oyegunle said he had been impacted by the attitudes of those he had worked with. "These Sudanese people just go out and meet people," he said. "They opened my eyes."

Contact reporter Katie Branca at katie.branca@richmond.edu