CRS Congratulates Awut Deng Acuil, Humanitarian Award Winner

Catholic Relief Services
Monday, 3 June 2002

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) today congratulated Awut Deng Acuil, winner of InterAction's 2002 Humanitarian Award. Mrs. Deng, a CRS partner in Sudan, received the award for her work in promoting peace and development in the war-torn nation. The Humanitarian award is given annually to an individual who has demonstrated "extraordinary leadership in support of non-governmental organizations and the people they serve in the developing world."

"Awut is an inspiration to us all," said Ken Hackett, CRS Executive Director. "She is a person who has dedicated her life to bringing peace and reconciliation to this troubled region of Africa. Magnifying her particular ability to bridge the divides that split local communities gives courage and hope to others that most problems can be resolved through sensitive dialogue and understanding," Hackett said,

A longtime conflict resolution trainer with the New Sudan Council of Churches, Deng is also a founding member of the Sudanese Women Association of Nairobi and the Sudanese Women Voice for Peace. Additionally, she has been instrumental in the People-to-People peace process as the Secretary of Information on the Dinka-Nuer West Bank Peace council.

Deng was born and raised in South Sudan where she completed her formative education prior to getting married in 1979. She completed her secondary education while being a mother. The onset of the armed civil unrest in the 1980s disrupted her educational ambition and made her a refugee in Kenya where she took English classes and later received a Bachelor's Degree in International Relations from the United States International University in Nairobi.

Sudan has been ravaged by civil war for more than four decades. The war has claimed nearly two million lives and left more than four million Sudanese displaced, with their communities, basic services and infrastructure destroyed. CRS has provided assistance to communities in Sudan since 1989.

Catholic Relief Services is the official relief and development agency of the United States Catholic community. Founded in 1943, the agency provides assistance to people in more than 80 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Catholic Relief Services provides assistance on the basis of need, not race, creed or nationality.

For more information, or to contact Catholic Relief Services, see their website at: www.catholicrelief.org