April 1, 2002
Sierra Leone refugee looking for a loving family
___By Scott Collins
___Buckner News Service
___Larry and Frances Jones had been there before. In the 22 years since they founded the international relief agency Feed the Children, the Joneses had walked through misery and desperation in nearly every corner of the world.
___The blank stares and hungry eyes were nothing new to these veterans in the war against worldwide poverty and starvation.
___So that day last year as the Joneses walked through the Klinestown Refugee Center in the West African nation of Sierra Leone was like so many other walks they had made. Thousands of eyes followed the Americans--eyes that seemed to cry out for a glimpse of hope.
___"Larry and I were walking through the refugee camp and saw a brave, friendly boy standing all alone," Mrs. Jones recalls."We both felt drawn to him. He wasn't speaking to us or anything. He did not ask for anything. He just stood out."
ARUNA VANDY, 13, witnessed the brutal murder of his parents in Sierra Leone. In the United States, he has received medical treatment for a serious wound to his arm. Now he's looking for a loving Christian family to adopt him through Buckner Adoption & Maternity Services.
___Like thousands of children in Sierra Leone, Aruna Vandy, 13, is the victim of one of the world's most brutal conflicts.
___When he was 7, rebels invaded Aruna's village and caught him and two of his friends. They slashed Aruna's right arm in two places, badly maiming him and leaving the arm virtually useless. He then watched as the rebels killed his mother and father.
___Terrified, Aruna ran to hide in the bush, where he found dozens of other villagers also hiding. An African medicine woman burned leaves and placed them on his wounds to sear the skin so it would stop the bleeding and allow the cuts to heal.
___When he was able to walk, Aruna made the trip to Freetown in search of a place to live. While staying at a displaced persons center, he found an aunt, his only known relative. With about 2,500 people in a small place, he had to mark off his space to sit and sleep. Food was scarce, and at times he had to eat leaves and grass to survive.
___Nearly five years later, when Aruna was 12, he caught the eyes of the Joneses.
___"Larry and I were so drawn to Aruna," Mrs. Jones said. "He was so alone. While we were at the refugee camp, we felt if we could get Aruna to the United States, we could help him get some relief and at least regain some use of his arm."
___They sent photographs of Aruna to Walter Bell, a surgeon in Feed the Children's hometown of Oklahoma City. Bell said he could help, and after securing a medical visa, the Joneses arranged for Aruna and a chaperone to make the trip to the United States, where he arrived May 20, 2001.
___On June 5, Bell and a team of physicians at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City operated on Aruna's right arm. The initial surgery gave Aruna approximately 80 percent of the functional use of his arm and hand.
___In August, Aruna began another step in his odyssey when he entered the fifth grade at Hilldale Elementary School in Oklahoma City. His teacher, Wes Philips, marvels at Aruna's ability to make the jump from Sierra Leone.
___"He can probably do anything he wants to because he is so intelligent," Phillips said. "He came straight from Africa and into the fifth grade, and he refused to do any lower grade work in my class. He makes it clear that he wants to do fifth-grade work. If I try to shorten the lesson, he won't go for it. He does everything we do."
___It is that can-do spirit and strength that drew the Joneses' daughter, Larri Sue Jones, to Aruna.
___"There is just something about him," she said. "It's an aura about him. Being a part of Feed the Children, you see hundred of thousands of kids, but some just are really special and you know that they just need a chance to make it. There is spark in their eyes, a fire in their eyes."
___In February, the Jones family contacted Mike Douris and the staff at Buckner Adoption and Maternity Services about helping find a permanent home for Aruna through adoption. Douris said Buckner is now actively trying to find a family to accept Aruna into their home.
___"Whoever adopts him is going to have a very caring, loving person who is going to be very dedicated and devoted," said Phillips, the fifth-grade teacher.
___"He wants to know he's not just a guest," Larri Sue Jones said. "He's a young man who saw his parents mutilated and killed in front of him and then he managed to survive four years on his own in a displaced persons camp, so he had a rough start. But he kind of works his way into your heart and your life."
___Editor's note: For information about adopting Aruna, call Kathy Cobb at (214) 381-1552.
___
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