On this episode of Syracuse Side Hustles, meet Dut Leek Deng, a man determined to help women and children in Sudan, his homeland. A custodian for the Syracuse University Center of Excellence during the week, Deng spends his free time working on his non-profit organization, South Sudan Initiatives (SSI). The inspiration for SSI comes from Dut’s personal experience as one of the first Lost Boys of Sudan to come to Syracuse. Dut learned the value of education in the refugee camps of his youth and pursued it further after arriving in America. Now, he wants to pay his opportunities forward. Unicef reports more than two million South Sudanese children don’t attend school, and Dut wants to change that. SSI offers educational tuition assistant and business assistance programs for widows afflicted by the Sudanese conflict.

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