The Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society will host a “virtual talk” at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 24, by John Dau titled “A Child of Rural South Sudan.”

Dau was one of approximately 27,000 children who, during the second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005), were displaced from other members of their families—many of whom were killed or enslaved by the attacking soldiers. With minimal adult support, the boys fended largely for themselves, facing hunger, disease, and violence from Arab militia and unfriendly tribes. They hid in isolated areas and crossed national borders in their attempt to survive.

A release announcing the talk said Dau became a leader among them and in 1992 led 1,200 on the six-month trek from the Sudan to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Eight hundred survived. In 2001, Dau was one of residents of the camp allowed to immigrate to the United States. He settled in New York, where he earned a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University. He attributes his ability to ...