SEE: South Sudan

July 9, 2013, marks the second anniversary of South Sudan’s independence from Sudan. Story has become so vital to our understanding, communicating or relating to something in this big wonder-filled world of ours. Last year we felt we had to SEE South Sudan – one of our new projects – before we could help tell it. On Rule29’s and Wonderkind Studios‘ previous visits to Africa, we landed in a major city like Addis Abba, Ethiopia or Nairobi, Kenya. From there we would work in the local slums, then make our way out to the rural areas. On this trip we landed in Nairobi and took a plane to the Kenyan border. We went through customs and then took another plane that landed on a dirt runway in Rumbek, South Sudan, a city in our world’s newest country. What was most shocking to us was the fact that we were seriously isolated and in a whole new world.

We spent the next seven days listening, sweating a lot, and experiencing as much as we could of the South Sudanese. We conducted interviews, played, ate, and lived in a compound right in the middle of the community. While we were there we visited a local clinic, a school, and several villages, where we watched the local farmers at work. We also spent time testing prototypes for educational materials we’re working on with Kent State University – more about that in a future post.

At the end of the trip, we decided we would make a book: a collection of the amazing people we met and interviewed combined with facts and realities of their world – a world that we as a society can help evolve. Not an in depth look at South Sudan, but an introduction to the beauty, the people, the struggle, and most of all the hope that can be witnessed there.

South Sudan Book Trailer from Rule29 on Vimeo.

Rule29 is honored to be working with organizations like Life In Abundance who spend their days helping to empower those who need it most. This project is just a tiny piece of what we get to do to help build awareness of the new story of South Sudan. We hope you’ll consider purchasing a copy of the book from LIA.

If you want a chance to receive a free copy of the book… comment below, then repost and/or retweet this post. From there, we’ll select five people (at random) who will receive a copy of the new book. We will then donate the purchase price in their names.

Whatever you choose to do, we hope you take the time to SEE what is around you – especially in a world completely different from yours.