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He was 3 when he fled civil war in Sudan and walked hundreds of miles on foot through the hot desert plains to the refugee camp.

Yet, despite their name, the Lost Boys are remarkable in that many found their way to safety despite encountering unimaginable horrors.

In 1999, the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees and the U.S. State Department referred about 3,800 children and young adults to the United States for permanent resettlement. Those under 18 were placed with foster families from Fargo, N.D., to Phoenix, Ariz.

In 1987, civil war drove an estimated 20,000 young boys from their families and villages in south Sudan. Most just six or seven years old, they fled to Ethiopia to escape death or induction into slavery and the northern army. They walked more than a thousand miles, half of them dying before reaching a Kenyan refugee camp. The survivors of this tragic exodus became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan.

ince its inception in 2001, the Lost Boys Emergency Fund has distributed over $14,000 to southern Sudanese refugees, with the generous support of IRC donors.