Nov 18, 2008 6:32 am US/Mountain
Boulder Fire Victim Gets Pay It 4ward Help
Written by CBS4 special projects producer Libby Smith
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Susan Moi, 21, was one of two women severely burned in a Boulder apartment fire Saturday night, Nov. 15, 2008. Moi is a refugee from Sudan.
CBS
The idea behind CBS4's Pay it Forward Colorado project is to give $1,000 to a Coloradan (or group of Coloradans) who will use the money to change someone else's life. Submit your ideas
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. Below lies CBS4's Nov. 17 report. BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) -- Susan Moi is in critical condition in a Denver hospital with burns to 30 percent of her body. Moi is one of two women severely burned trying to escape a fire at the Fairways Apartment in Boulder.
This is not the first hardship that Moi has had to endure. She is one of the Lost Girls of Sudan - separated from her parents in Sudan when she was just 4-years-old. Moi followed other orphans to a refugee camp and ended up with other family in Boulder.
"We left Sudan because of the civil war separated us from our parents," said Josephine Aboda, Moi's cousin.
The Lost Girls of Sudan endured an unimaginable journey to get to Boulder. Their families, half-a-world away, felt good about them being here.
"Because we were the people who escaped from the war and now we found in us, we are safe and they believe we are here for them," said Grace Lokulang, another of Moi's cousins.
Now Moi's cousins make the difficult phone call back to Africa to tell Susan's relatives that she's in a coma. Pictures of Susan in an refugee camp tell of a time of confusion and trouble, now her family faces another tragedy.
"It seems like our lives seem not to get better all the time, all the time we try to enjoy life something bad would happen," Josephine Aboda told CBS4.
A CBS4 viewer saw their story and felt their pain. Anne Koshio became familiar with the Sudanese refugees' story through books and documentaries. She sympathizes with the difficult adjustments they've had to make in America. When she saw another tragedy in their lives, she felt compelled to help. Koshio asked CBS4 for $1,000 to help these strangers get back on their feet.
"Just their resilience of spirit, that was like can we somehow get that back to them and not make this another devastation," Koshio told CBS4.
It has been a long hard road for this group from Sudan and now one of their own faces the longest, most difficult stretch of all.
Donations to help the displaced families of Fairways Apartments can be made to Thistle Community Housing's Emergency Assistance Fund, you can get more information at
www.thistlehousing.org.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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