N 2003, Tara McKelvely looked at an interesting statistic that of the 3,700 young Sudanese refugees that made it to America, only 89 of them female?

When reaching the refugee camps in Ethiopia, the unaccompanied male minors (Lost Boys) were placed in boys only areas of the camps. However, according to Sudanese culture, the girls could not be left alone and instead were placed with surviving family members or with other surviving families/adults. When the US resettlement program was established in 1999, part of the qualifying criteria was that the children be considered orphans in order to qualify. By that time, most of the girls had been living in the family units assigned them for 9-14 years and were no longer considered to be orphans.

Therefore, they were not eligible for resettlement.

er sad assessment of other Lost Girls was echoed in a 2003 congressional report by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which found the young women's young male refugee counterparts--who outnumber them roughly by 38 to 1--faring much better. Sudanese "Lost Boys" were making substantial strides in achieving independence, the report found, with employment rates 18 percent higher than among male U.S. counterparts. Lost Girls, by contrast, lag U.S. female counterparts by 25 percent.

Achol Kuol (not her real name) was seven when she, her mother and four brothers fled their Sudanese village because of vicious fighting between rebels and government troops. They trudged first to Ethiopia, returned to Sudan and then headed south to Kenya in a trek that lasted for years.

There was little water to drink, we survived on leaves and wild fruit,' the teenager recalled. 'Some of the girls were eaten by lions.' Somewhere in the bush she lost touch with her mother, who is still missing.

Another girl, Adeu, recalls crossing the River Gilo on the Sudanese-Ethiopian border. 'I can remember being held by two of my uncles who were helping me across. One of them was swept away and that was the last time I saw him. I was later told he had been eaten by a crocodile.'

The other hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of girls and young women who survived the journey are still in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Many are living with so-called foster families and are being exploited as domestic servants or worse.

When the Sudanese children first arrived in Kakuma, the boys were placed in group homes and loosely supervised by adults. Meanwhile, the girls were placed in foster families. In theory, the foster families would provide a more nurturing environment. In practice, the girls simply disappeared.

Achol Kuol has already survived one brutal attempt to kidnap her back to Sudan and into a forced marriage. The girl believes this will only be the first of repeated attempts to marry her off. Arranged marriages are, after all, big business. Her first suitor offered her foster parents 50 cattle, which represents a huge sum in Sudan, as a

dowry

Education, no matter how limited, offers a sliver of hope, but none of the girls have yet been given the opportunity to board a gleaming aircraft, learn to use a computer and plan a new life of hope in a strange country.

Why not the girls?" Grace asks, "I would have liked the chance to go abroad. You can be free there. Free to work, free to study."

Few have thought to inquire about the fate of the "Lost Girls".

Although

Men of high social standing may have as many as fifty to one hundred wives. In polygamous marriages, wives cooperate in performing household duties, although each rears her own children. Much of Dinka public life is dominated by men. However, women play a significant and even powerful role in local life.