John Dau is currently the President and Founder of the John Dau Foundation, an organization that builds and runs medical clinics, trains community health workers, and administers nutritional programs specifically targeting children and women in several villages in the former Duk County, the same county as his home village. Since immigrating to the United States in 2001 after spending nine years in a refugee camp in Kenya, John earned his Associate’s and Bachelor’s Degree from Syracuse University and became a social entrepreneur, founding four nonprofits to bring hope and peace to people of his home South Sudan.

John’s life is one of courage, resilience and leadership, one that started when his home village of Duk Payuel fell under attack when he was 13. Over the next five years John experienced challenges and adversity that most people couldn’t imagine. By the time John led 800 “Lost Boys” in to the Kakuma refugee Camp in Kenya, he had seen over 9,000 of his fellow lost boys die at the hands of rebels and had marched hundreds of miles from home. It is in the memory of his brothers and his past that has motivated him to give back to his community and dedicate his life to being a social entrepreneur.

In addition to founding several nonprofits, John was featured as the subject of the award winning “God Grew Tired of Us” documentary and has received over 40 prestigious awards including the National Geographic Emerging Explorers Award and the World Economic Forum Young Global Leader Award.