Our Story
A journey from displacement to education — and a belief in something different.
From South Sudan to Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, UWC South East Asia, and the founding of IfP-South Sudan.
The Question
"Are we destined to live our entire lives as refugees? Will our children, too, grow up, live, die, and be buried as refugees?"
Deng Aguer Bul grew up amid the consequences of South Sudan's conflict and later in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Displacement meant more than losing a place to call home. It disrupted education, separated families and communities, and shaped a generation growing up with uncertainty about what the future could hold.
One question stayed with him: what would it take for the next generation to inherit something different?
That question became part of the foundation for IfP-South Sudan.
The Journey
From experience to action.
Five moments that turned lived experience into a vision for IfP-South Sudan.
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01Home
South Sudan
Where the story began — born into a country rich in culture and community, while growing up amid the realities of conflict and division.
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02Displacement
Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Uganda
Displacement made the consequences of conflict deeply personal — interrupted education, separated communities, and a generation growing up far from home.
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03Possibility
UWC South East Asia, Singapore
A scholarship opened the door to education in an intentionally diverse international community — and to a different way of seeing what learning could do.
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04Conviction
The Idea
The realization that education could connect three things at once: opportunity, relationships across difference, and leadership.
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05Action
IfP-South Sudan
The idea became an organization: a youth-led initiative combining education, peacebuilding, leadership, and community action.
The Turning Point
Education changed one life.
Could it help bridge a divided nation?
At UWC South East Asia, living and learning alongside people from different countries, cultures, and experiences changed Deng's understanding of what education could make possible. Education was not only a path to opportunity. It could also challenge assumptions, build relationships across difference, and create the understanding from which trust can grow.
Education showed me that understanding can begin when people are given the opportunity to learn alongside one another.
From One Experience to a Shared Purpose
The question became an idea.
What if education could offer young South Sudanese more than a degree? What if it could also create the relationships, leadership, and shared experiences needed to build something different?
That question became the foundation of IfP-South Sudan: expanding access to education while creating opportunities for young people to learn across differences, develop as leaders, and turn what they learn into action in their communities.
The Movement
From one story to a shared purpose.
What began as one person's question is now the work of many. IfP-South Sudan is led by a South Sudanese team and shaped by the young people, elders, and communities who take part.
Together, we expand access to education, build relationships across communities, develop young leaders, and turn learning into action.
Deng Aguer Bul
Abraham Manyok
Daruka Pantheer
Dut Jessino Dau
Kathy O'Brien
Olatundun Janet Adelegan
James Shillabeer
Johana Melendez, MS
