Valentino and Dave Eggers speak in Portland, Maine. (Photo courtesy Laura Lewis.)
The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation seeks to improve U.S. policy toward Sudan by educating the public and policy makers on the situation in Sudan. The Foundation does this primarily through public speaking engagements; in addition, we distribute small grants to organizations working in Sudan advocacy; and we collaborate with leading advocacy organizations, such as citizen action groups, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations.
PUBLIC SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Valentino Achak Deng has toured the United States and Europe, visiting colleges, high schools, churches, bookstores, and community groups to share his story, talk about his collaboration with Dave Eggers on What Is the What, his return to Sudan to establish the first high school in his hometown, and the efforts he is taking to help send children to schools in Southern Sudan.
If you’d like to learn about future events, please sign up for our mailing list. You’ll also receive updates from our new high school and educational center in Marial Bai, and information about the current state of affairs in Southern Sudan.
Valentino is now represented by the Lavin Agency, a leading speakers bureau that represents notable speakers like Salman Rushdie and Isabel Allende. To view Valentino’s speaker profile and invite him for an event, click here. Contact Lavin: info@TheLavinAgency.com or by phone at 800-762-4234.
COLLABORATION WITH ADVOCACY GROUPS
In addition to public speaking engagements, Valentino collaborates with groups that are actively working to improve the situation in Sudan.
Valentino has participated in various forums aimed at policy makers and international development professionals. He has spoken at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) World Refugee Day in San Francisco, and the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting (where he was a panelist at the plenary session on the "Promise of Education in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations"). Along with Dave Eggers, he spoke at the International Rescue Committee.
SMALL GRANTS
The Foundation makes a small number of grants available to organizations in the United States that share our goal to educate people about Sudan. A $10,000 grant was made to Voice of Witness to help fund the book Out of Exile, a collection of oral histories about abduction, displacement, and slavery in Sudan. Valentino and Dave Eggers wrote the introduction, and helped with the book by interviewing two women from Marial Bai who were former slaves. With oral history, the Voice of Witness book series seeks to illustrate human rights crises through the voices of the victims.
For a list of other organizations working on Sudan policy and development projects in Sudan, please see our Links section.
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.
