The South Eastman Rotary Club to empower youth, community at gala

The South Eastman Rotary Club will hold an evening of empowerment for youth and the community for this year’s annual gala on Nov. 19.

Empowering tomorrow: An evening of impact for youth and community will feature guest speaker Rebecca Atet Deng.

“This evening is about celebrating impact – the power of education, resilience, and community working together to build a better tomorrow,” stated Cornelius Petkau, rotary president, in a news release.

Atet Deng is a South Sudanese-American author, speaker, and human rights advocate. She was one of the Lost Girls of Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War and spent years in a refugee camp before resettling in North America.

The Sudanese Civil War ran from 1983 to 2005 and was fought between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Two million people died as a result of the war and four million people were displaced in southern Sudan.

The Lost Girls of Sudan were a group of girls who were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army from their homes and schools in Uganda and Sudan. Many were forced into servitude, sexual slavery, or child marriage, and lived with the trauma of the abduction.

Today, Atet Deng dedicates her life to helping women and children affected by war and is the founder of Excel Empowerment Centre.

The gala is free, and all sponsorships support Rotary educational projects, including the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, Rotary Youth Leadership Assembly, and the Ripple Effect which involves building schools in Guatemala.

Sponsorship opportunities are: Classroom ($300), Double Classroom ($600), Gold ($1,000), Platinum ($2,000), and the new $50 Student Sponsorship.

The presentation will be held at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach. Doors open at 5 p.m. with the program and reception beginning at 5:30 p.m.