Athiel Majok Akoon (Liberated March 2015)

I was captured at Malek Bol Akoon, a village near the town
of Warawar, where there was fighting. I was returning home after collecting
water from the well when the Arabs found me. I was holding water on my head,
and had my baby tied to my back. They took my water away and forced me to go
with them. We came to a place where many Dinka people had been gathered
together by the Arabs. They forced us to walk to North Sudan for seven days. I
was raped four times on the journey. I saw four people killed on the way –
three women and one man – because they refused to be separated from their children.
My baby girl, Achan, was taken away from me. I never saw here again.

In North Sudan, I was given to an Arab man named Al-Hai. He
made me work in his farm and collect wood for cooking. He treated me very
badly. Every day, I was called bad names.

Al-Hai gave me to a Dinka slave named Deng. We had three
daughters together. When the Arabs’ treatment got so bad I couldn’t bear it, I
escaped and left them behind. I found the Arab slave retriever in another
village, and he brought me back here.

You can help us get more people like Athiel’s children out of slavery. Go to www.csi-usa.org/slavery/ to donate or learn more.