The Memnosyne Institute, and Gua Africa for the Sudanese refugees

Co-Founder/Vice President of The Memnosyne Institute agrees, “Refugees are humans first and foremost. They are victims of forces far beyond their control.”

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, August 31, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- When Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier turned international hip-hop star and peace activist through his founding of Gua Africa, a London based non-profit which provides educational programs for those affected by war and displacement in East Africa offering education to refugees who have survived war and genocide learned about the urgent need to assist Sudanese refugees to flee to South Sudan and Kenya, he immediately began working to connect with others around the globe to help him.

Thanks to Richard Branson and Jane Tewson for hosting one of Igniting Change’s retreats at Necker Island back in 2021, he and his agent, Tania Campbell Golding, had been introduced to the co-founders of The Memnosyne Institute, an international non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas founded by Joshua Raymond Frenk and Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk, dedicated to helping humanity handle the challenges of globalization as responsibly and compassionately as possible, leading the organization to have accomplished such things worldwide as helping to negotiate the first treaty/alliance in 300 years between Hopi and Navajo nations, establishing the interfaith initiative FoodSourceDFW which has become one of the leading initiatives fighting food waste in the nation, led by Rev. Dr. Todd Collier, feeding 5,000 families a day in Dallas alone and $55,077,154.00 of food saved to date, GreenSourceDFW serving the environmental community of North Texas, three international chapters including Japan, Israel/Palestine and Mexico where it supports two cultural centers serving the Maya (Centro Comunitario U kúuchil k Ch'i'ibalo'on -Raxalaj Mayab'), and Tolteca ( Centro Cultural Tolteca de Teotihuacan AC / Toltec Cultural Center) community. No stranger to reacting to emergency situations when due to COVID-19, The Memnosyne Institute’s “Masks For Life” initiative was launched under Yolonda Bluehorse’s, Isabell Rossignol’s and the organization’s founders’ leadership in providing $246,400 worth of KN95 reusable masks for indigenous communities in Alaska, New York, Nevada, Texas, California, Montana, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico and more while the organization’s FoodSource initiative continued to grow, with food making its way to the Ukraine. The organization also worked to negotiate the donation of water to the Comecrudo Carrizo Tribe of Texas who was assisting tribe members and non-members alike stranded during the harsh Texas freeze in early 2021, thanks to the assistance of Michael Thompson via 7-Eleven.

Due to this history, Lord Andrew Stone had asked The Memnosyne Institute to launch a membership based chapter in the UK, a request that was further positively encouraged by the CEO of Global Woman, Mirela Sula, former UK Olympian Sky Andrew, Dana Amma Day of Positive TV, Baroness Verma, David Solomons of the Loving Classroom, as well as former Memnosyne Advisory Board Members, the late Lawrence Bloom and Keith Critchlow.

Emmanuel Jal, Mary Ann and Joshua had originally committed to intending to bring the first African location of The Memnosyne Institute’s “School Out of A Box” prototype, (the first is in the Yucatan) providing a space for students to pursue online high school and college education via online education, to be located next to where he had built a library for recovering child soldiers. Designed by eco-architect/developer and Memnosyne Board Member, Tania Arrayales Rodriguez, it will provide a safe and quiet space for committed students to pursue their education. However, having learned to start small, the Memnosyne Institute had originally been focused, under the request by UK based nonprofit, Igniting Change’s founder, Jane Tewson, to expand on its Coloring Book program, providing a simple coloring book created by Mary Ann introducing children to the diversity of cultures worldwide. First launched in Rwanda, it has served communities around the globe. However, given the struggles of refugees worldwide witnessed by both women in their work, Jane asked that a new edition be created to include images of refugees which organizations like Igniting Change and Gua Africa could provide with donated crayons.

But neither Emmanuel nor Mary Ann and Joshua would have ever dreamed that their first collaboration between organizations would wind up being about getting Sudanese refugees to safety!

Emmanuel explains, “Gua Africa works with families, communities and individuals to help them overcome the effect of war and poverty. Our current collaboration with The Memnosyne Institute is a cause that is dear to my heart. As a former child soldier and a refugee I know what it means to lose everything. The war that is currently happening in Sudan has put many South Sudanese and Sudanese into vulnerable state. Women and children so left helpless that some couldn’t afford to flee and the least we can do now is save one soul at time. You have no idea how big this is. One soul is saving many. Each bus takes 70 to 100 people and we will be taking two busloads of people to safety this week.”

The Memnosyne Institute UK Chapter head, David Solomons, adds, “It makes sense that The Memnosyne Institute’s UK Chapter should seek to serve India, New Zealand and Africa as well as communities here in the UK.”

The way all this had come about was truly serendipitous as both Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk and Emmanuel Jal were performing at different venues in the same time in London, due to her serving as the Keynote Speaker for July 16th at the multiday 2023 Global Woman Summit and him performing at The Post Bar on July 15th. With Mary Ann having been adopted by John Philp Thompson Sr. and Debra Rutherford Thompson of the 7-Eleven family due to being born at 7:11am on Mother’s Day in 1977, thereby being taken out of poverty and inserted into a life full of opportunities to make an impact and with Emmanuel having been kidnapped from his bedroom window at 4years old to be forced into a child army where he was forced to serve until the day he prayed for the strength to not eat his friends for survival (drugs had been put into the food so the children either starved or wer forced to be addicted or some resorted to eating others for survival), to one day waking up with the ability to walk away, both friends gravitated to each other with the deep understanding that if life provides you with the chance to escape struggling circumstances it is one’s responsibility to be in service towards uplifting humanity in any way possible. Inspired by their shared philosophy, the two humanitarians agreed to team up on the Global Woman Summit stage to address the importance of business leaders recognizing the power they possess to positively impact the world.

This topic is important to both of them as aside from his music and non-profit work, Emmanuel has established, Jal Gua, a gluten free super food powder which has a distribution deal with Pilling Foods in Ontario, Canada and is currently stocked in major health stores across Canada including WHOLE FOODS as well as online and Mary Ann has collaborated with Tania Arrayales Rodriguez, (recognized as Mexico’s leading female green architect), in establishing Eco-Eco, aimed at creating solar farms in Texas via it’s Green Energy Llc arm which will double as needed pollinator sanctuaries for Monarchs and bees needed by North America’s corn farmers and to her recently co-founding UTF Holdings with Kalu Ugwuomo Jr. which aims to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Others have taken note of their work with Emmanuel having received the Desmond Tutu Reconciliation Award 2017and The Hero in the global campaign against violent extremism from UNESCO in 2016 and with Mary Ann having received the 2018 Civic Pioneer Award, considered one of the highest recognitions given by Congress to a USA female citizen, and recognized again in 2021when Texas Representatives Victoria Neave and Rhetta Bowers drafted Bill HR1472 to recognize Mary Ann’s statewide, national and local humanitarian work. She served as the 2023 Keynote for the London Inspire Awards this past February.

Mary Ann explains, “I see it all as humanitarianism. Whether it be using arts, philanthropy, social responsible investing, conscious capitalism, or activism, it’s all necessary. It is a privilege to serve in collaboration with Emmanuel Jal and his Gua Africa organization which has accomplished so much and continues to do incredible work. It’s rare to have the opportunity to connect with someone on all those levels, so both Joshua and I and The Memnosyne Institute’s board and the Memnosyne Institute UK Chapter are excited that this is only the beginning!”, pausing for a moment she adds, “When you have walked in areas of the world that are in abject poverty and you realize you have the freedom to walk away to a place full of possibility that offers the chance that if you work hard you will get to eat or drink and be in safe space and that getting to start from that scenario which many of us take for granted in the first world, is a privilege. I’ve been in Rwanda where people were rebuilding their lives and in huts in the Yucatan where a family of five takes up a tiny palapa the size of most first world bathrooms to seeing children who’d been cruelly torn from families on the USA border now behind bars and all I could think was ‘I’ve done nothing to deserve where I’ve been privileged to begin in life. But we all need to do more to recognize each others’ common humanity. Refugees are not in their position because they have done something wrong. They are not criminals because they are in such dire circumstances. Many of them are in fact fleeing situations that those much more powerful have forged through decisions and actions the everyday people have no control over. No one wants to leave the home they love, have history with and know unless they have no choice.”

Co-Founder/Vice President of The Memnosyne Institute agrees, “Refugees are humans first and foremost. They are victims of forces far beyond their control.”

Emmanuel adds, “The situation is terrible in Sudan and the war is getting worse. But I am dancing now. We have gathered the people together and the buses are ready with security to protect the women and children. Once I get The Memnosyne Institute’s coloring books when I meet up with Mary Ann in London, we will be taking them back to the children who’ve been safely brought over. We are blessed by the opportunity that’s been created to transport people to safety!”

If you would like to sponsor a bus of 70-100 refugees, please contact Gua Africa. Please also consider donating towards the printing of the coloring books and the crayons which the children, stunned from their ordeal, will find helpful in dealing with the shock of their experience and in many cases, may be enjoying crayons for the first time! You can donate to The Memnosyne Institute if in the USA or to Gua Africa if in the UK. Coloring books will be donated to Gua Africa’s efforts under Emmanuel Jal’s leadership, to Igniting Change led by Jane Tewson and to other collaborating organizations associated with those organizations.

Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk
The Memnosyne Institute & Gua Africa
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