Cultural Preservation & Exchange

The Cultural Preservation and Exchange Program develops projects and opportunities for the Sudanese community in North Carolina to preserve and share their culture and social values with the larger communities in which they live and with Sudanese youth.

Background

Sudanese refugees and immigrants leave their homes in the Southern Sudan under duress.  They arrive as strangers in a new land and their primary effort is to provide for the immediate welfare of their families.  No less important is the need to recognize the value of their own culture and social values.  This need increases in importance when one considers the millions of displaced peoples in the Southern Sudan.  

The Sudanese have a very distinct culture which informs every aspect of their lives.  Participation in cultural preservation and exchange empowers Sudanese refugees to value a culture that has existed for centuries and is one of the few things not destroyed by decades of civil war in the Southern Sudan.  In addition, it is vital to the survival of Sudanese culture that young people have opportunities to learn about the culture and to share it with the communities in which they live.