:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/imported_assets/731341/smb_090331_dn_duany-melo.jpg)
I was perusing the most resent issue of Whitman, the official magazine of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, I came across a familiar face. Keuth Duany!
An under-appreciated cog in the 2003 NCAA National Champion machine, Duany is currently studying for his MBA and will receive it next year. Great stuff. Even better is what Duany had to say about his homeland of Southern Sudan.
Duany is currently the managing director of Duany Group, an investment company that is heavily invested in various Sundanese businesses and infrastructure. It's a very important time in Southern Sudan and Duany might just be at the forefront of it. On February 7th, the referendum passed with 98.83% voting in favor of independence. The predetermined date for the creation of an independent state is July 9th.
Duany says "the most important act that I have done is cast my vote for the independence of Southern Sudan, during the historic referendum on January 9th, 2011." That excitement comes through in the work he's doing, and will be doing, once he's received his master's degree.
Duany isn't the only local student involved with the Sudanese independence. OCC and SUNY Binghamton grad Mawut Guarak was formerly a child soldier, but escaped to find education and opportunity in CNY. Now he's back in Sudan working as director for resolutions in the State Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and became an associate professor at John Garang University in Bor.
With the help of the Syracuse-area Sudanese community and others, Guarak is collecting textbooks for the empty library back in Sudan. And that's where you might be able to help. Money is still needed to help get the textbooks to Sudan.
Checks can be made to SUNY Oswego ASC and mail to SUNY Oswego Room 702, Culkin Hall, Oswego, NY 13126. Please put "John Garang University Project" in the memo line. Organizers say they don’t need any more text books at this time.