Aweil Community Association in the U.S.A (ACA-USA)
8TH Annual Conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota December, 8th 2007.
The Conference outcome Resolution:
The office of the ACA-USA would like to apologize to its members for the lengthy time it has taken us to release our conference’s resolution. It has truly been a long while since our Annual Conference was held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota – USA. As you all know it was not easy to provide this information in short time as there were a lot of issues that were left hanging and which needed to be iron out before releasing this report.
But, first and foremost, we would like to give our gratitude to great people of South Dakota for accepting to hold our Annual Conference and for every effort they put into making the conference a great success. We are very appreciative of their commitment. But most particularly, I must give special thank to Aweil women in South Dakota who spent sleepless nights cooking and making everyone feel at home. We owe them every bit of gratitude. We would also like to sincerely thank those who traveled long distances to attend the conference. In particular, Federation of Aweil Communities in Canada (F.A.C.C) delegation headed by Mr. Atilo Garang, Secretary for Youth Affairs in the F.A.C.C. We are so thankful to F.A.C.C for making arrangements to have a delegation attended our conference; we hope this spirit of cooperation will continue being strengthened by our communities in the Diaspora.
I would also like to register our gratitude to the government of south Sudan (GOSS), especially DR Barnaba Marial Benjamin and the office of southern Sudan mission in Nairobi and Washington
DC for helping us coordinate travel arrangement for delegation from Northern Bahr-El-Ghazal which was headed by Governor Madut Biar.
But most particularly, our greatest thank goes to NBEG government delegation led by Governor Madut Biar. The NBEG cabinet members who attended our conference included the following:
- Hon. Angelo Marac Thiik, Speaker of Parliament
- Hon. Garang Diing Akuang, the Ministry of Health
- Hon. Abuor Gordon, Ministry of Social Development
- Hon. Hussain Abdalbagi Ayii Akol, Political Advisor to the governor
Members of ACA-USA felt greatly honor to such high level delegation attended our conference. We are even more thankful to Sudanese rising star, Musician, John Kudusay for attending our conference. Our conference was historical in many aspects as it was the first conference to be attended by post-war South Sudanese Governor.
2007 Annual Conference of the ACA-USA was conducted in two exciting days. The first day was dedicated to discussing post-war challenges in NBEG
State with government officials. The second day was devoted to addressing our community internal affairs many of which have tended to impede our efforts to accomplish our objectives. Differences among some members within our community were given great deal of discussion and it was agreed that we needed to put aside things that divide us and instead embrace our unity which has been the corner stone of our respectful community since time immemorial.
Fellow citizens, our community is strong and will continue to grow strong. As discussed in the conference, our unity is what we need now to overcome our numerous challenges. The resolution reached in the conference to work collaboratively as a team should be respected for the greatest good of our community here in the States and Sudan.
As part of our effort to try to serve our people back home, ACA-USA, in collaboration with NBEG delegation, entered into an agreement with the University of South Dakota, department of agriculture. The agreement allowed the University to sponsor at least forty students from Northern
Bahr
Elghazal
State every two years. This is a major achievement considering the dire need for higher education in our State.
We have also negotiated another agreement with Global Steel Inc. which will soon start building water facilities in NBEG such as water pumps as well as providing many other essential services. Dr. Rick Jackson, CEO of Global Steel In. is currently in Sudan where he is finalizing the agreement with NBEG administration.
Finally, we would once again like to call on all citizens of Mading Aweil in United States to come together and work toward alleviating some of major problems facing our homeland. Thank you all.
Ngong Ngong
President,
Aweil Community Association in U.S.A
|
