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The walking seemed endless. So did the sun, and the thirst. Every day.

And walked. And walked.

He walked because stopping might mean death. Or enslavement.

the U.S. refugee Resettlement Program welcomed a new group of refugees that was unique in many respects

many boys left their villages for refugee camps in Ethiopia. Some traveled with friends or relatives, others slipped away on their own at night. Few had any idea of what lay ahead of them, believing that their journey would last only a few days. Continually under threat, they fled for their lives, losing their way in the wilderness. They lost everything en route to soldiers, swindlers, or bandits. Many fell victim to lethal diseases. Others were so weakened by hunger and lack of sleep that they could go no further and sat down by the roadside, prey for lions and other wild animals.

n 1983, civil war broke out between the northern Arabic-speaking government of Sudan and southern tribes seeking autonomy. Since then, nearly two million people have died and five million have been displaced. Among those displaced are at least 20,000 children, mostly boys, between 7 and 17 years of age who were separated from their families.

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.