Main content

The Lost Boy: A never-ending journey, part 2

After learning his father is still alive, Salva Dut travels back to Sudan to find him. He's sick with a waterborne disease. So Salva decides to bring clean water to his village.

At the age of 11 in 1985, Salva Dut was separated from his family by the Sudanese civil war. After a decade moving between different refugee camps, and presumed an orphan, Salva was recommended for resettlement in the United States as part of a UN-backed programme to support some 4,000 so-called 'lost boys' who'd been displaced by conflict. Salva settled with a host family in Rochester, New York. But when he was in his late 20s, he found out that his father was in fact still alive. Salva travelled back to Sudan to find him. His father was in a clinic and sick with a waterborne disease. Salva decided to try to bring clean water to his home village. A few years later, he established an NGO, Water for South Sudan, and he returned to his birthplace to drill his first well.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Producer: Jo Impey

Get in touch: liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

(Photo: Salva Dut drilling for water; Credit: Water for South Sudan, Inc)

Available now

26 minutes

More episodes

See all episodes from Lives Less Ordinary

Featured

  • .

Podcast

  • Lives Less Ordinary

    Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Extraordinary personal stories