Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng meeting in Washington, D.C.
Valentino Achak Deng met Dave Eggers in January 2003 in Atlanta, where Valentino had been living since his resettlement to the United States in 2001. He was working while attending community college, and was already well known as a captivating public speaker and spokesman for the Sudanese community. Valentino contacted Dave with the help of his friend Mary Williams, who was the founder of an Atlanta-based organization called the Lost Boys Foundation.
After spending a weekend with Dave in Atlanta, Valentino asked him to help write his autobiography. He felt that his story could convey to the world the realities of what had happened in the civil war in Southern Sudan, and its effect on the people there. Dave agreed to help, and they began the process of recording Valentino’s story—a process that took three years of steady work.
Early on, Valentino and Dave decided that any and all proceeds from the book would be controlled by Valentino and used to help the Sudanese community. Valentino knew immediately that he would send most of the funds home to his village of Marial Bai. When he returned there with Dave during the writing of the book, he was overwhelmed by the difficulties facing his people. Southern Sudan was (and still is) recovering from war, and the extreme damage to infrastructure has left most of the region in poverty.
Valentino decided that he would use the funds from What Is the What to provide better educational opportunities for the Sudanese both in Southern Sudan and in the United States. To help achieve his goals, Valentino established the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation in the fall of 2006. Its creation coincided with the publication of What Is the What. All proceeds from the book are donated—and will continue to be donated, as it’s published in paperback and overseas—directly to Valentino’s cause.
The Foundation's first major project is the construction of an educational center in Valentino's hometown of Marial Bai. Working closely with the local community, the Foundation is building a large educational complex, consisting of:
the region's first-ever high school
a teachers' training college
a public library
sports facilities
a community center
During the summer of 2007, Valentino returned to Marial Bai to talk with the community, consult government leaders in the region, and lay the groundwork for this project. In early 2008, he returned to start construction on the secondary school, on a large plot of land that was donated by local government. A Sudanese architect designed the structures, bricks were made locally, and all of the construction workers were from the Marial Bai region.
The Marial Bai Secondary School opened in May 2009. It is the first fully-functional high school in the entire region, where there are no other opportunities for students—and especially girls—to continue their education past the elementary level. In spring 2010, we constructed a girls' dormitory, to provide a safe learning environment and an alternative to early marriage for hundreds of young women in the region.
As the Foundation grows and its projects develop, it will largely depend on fundraising to achieve and sustain its goals. Valentino plans to keep working to help the Sudanese in Southern Sudan and the United States, and his dreams will only be limited by the funding that the Foundation receives. If you would like to support Valentino's school-building projects, please visit our donate page.
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.
