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SCi ato GOS Group dispenses aid from “Samaritans Purse” to refugees in camps along the South Sudan border Karen Stiller, a freelance journalist who writes for Focus on Scugog, was among a number of journalists who travelled to the Sudan recently. She is seen here with refugees outside the Maban Refugee Camp who are waiting to register for humanitarian aid and shelter. 26 FOCUS - AUGUST 2012 08.FOCUS, AUGUST.32 pgsindd 26 SAMARITAN IS The Yida Refugee Camp in South Sudan sprawled like a vast village below our Cessna aircraft — just 18 kilometres away from one of the newest international borders in the world dividing Sudan from South Sudan (the newest nation in the world). Thad not expected a refugee camp to look like a small and growing town, but in many ways, that is exactly what it has become. A town by nobody’s choice. I was there by choice though, and by the invitation of Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian char- ity better known in Port Perry as the Christmas Shoebox people. Many Scugog churches partici- pate in this program every year. Shoeboxes are filled with small, often practi- cal gifts, and Samaritan’s Purse distributes them to children in need around the world. I do it every year with our three kids, and that was re- ally the extent of my knowledge of this organi- zation. Then, because of my work as a freelance journalist and editor who specializes in social justice issues often within the Canadian Church Press community, I was invited to join a me- dia tour that included a photojournalist from Calgary, a CBC radio freelancer from Toronto, and me, a print journalist from Port Perry. How could I possibly say no? Our journey to Yida was a two-and-a-half hour flight from the tiny, dim airport in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan. But for the refu- gees who make their way to Yida, it is usually a trek from two to 10 days, almost always on foot, carrying children and what possessions, food and water they managed to bring. In and around the Juba airport, signs still hang that say “Countdown to Southern Sudan Referendum.” They feature a sketch of a hand ramrod straight, above a large, inked thumb- print in a circle and the word “Separation.” Heat, time and dust have made the posters look older than they must actually be, because the vote took place just over a year ago in January 2011, and the dream of independence became reality on July 9, 2011. The dream itself of a Sudan free of war and particularly a South free of routine and dev- astating attacks, is dying. Oil lying rich and dark under the dry, red ground of South Sudan — with the pipeline that takes it to market laid across the North - muddies the waters. So do the new border lines that separated 12-07-23 9:10AM