Valentino Achak Deng, co-founder, was born in Southern Sudan, in the village of Marial Bai. He fled Sudan in the late 1980’s during civil war, when his village was destroyed by murahaleen—the same type of militia that currently terrorize Darfur. Deng spent nine years in Ethiopian and Kenyan refugee camps, where he worked for the UNHCR as a social advocate and reproductive health educator. In 2001 he resettled to Atlanta. Deng has toured the country speaking about his life in Sudan, his experience as a refugee, and his collaboration with author Dave Eggers on What Is the What, the novelized version of Deng’s life story. As a leader in the Sudanese diaspora, Deng advocates for the universal right to education and the freedom of his people in Sudan. In 2006, Deng and Eggers established the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation to help rebuild Sudanese communities by increasing access to educational opportunities. The Foundation’s first major initiative is to create a viable and community-driven educational center in Marial Bai.
Dave Eggers, co-founder, is the author of six previous books, including You Shall Know Our Velocity, winner of the Independent Book Award, and What Is the What, a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of France's Prix Medici. That book, about Valentino Achak Deng, a survivor of the civil war in Southern Sudan, gave birth to the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, run by Mr. Deng and dedicated to building secondary schools in Southern Sudan. Eggers is the founder and editor of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces books, an eponymous quarterly journal, a monthly magazine (The Believer), and Wholphin, a quarterly DVD of short films and documentaries. In 2002, with Nínive Calegari he co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth in the Mission District of San Francisco. Local communities have since opened sister 826 centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Ann Arbor, Seattle, and Boston. In 2004, Eggers taught at the University of California–Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and there, with Dr. Lola Vollen, he co-founded Voice of Witness, a series of books using oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. A native of Chicago, Eggers graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in journalism. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children.
Greg Larson, associate director, has spent much of the last year in Southern Sudan, helping oversee the Foundation's project to build an educational center in the village of Marial Bai. He has worked in the development office at Stanford University, and became involved with the Foundation after working with McSweeney’s on projects associated with What Is the What. He graduated from Stanford with a degree in English. greg@valentinoachakdeng.org
Barb Bersche, board secretary, is on the Board of Directors for the nonprofit organizations 826 Valencia and 826 National, both dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing skills. Barb graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in Political Science and Journalism.
Kim Wolf, our new part-time program assistant, has been involved with campaigns to raise awareness of the conflicts in Sudan since serving as Co-President and Treasurer of her STAND chapter at the University of California Berkeley. She spent a year studying in Cape Town, South Africa while traveling extensively in the region. Kim graduated from Berkeley with a degree in International Development with a focus in Africa. She also works at the Global Fund for Women.
This book by Dave Eggers tells the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, from his pre-war life in southern Sudan to his resettlement in the United States.
