Anita Henderlight is on a Tractor Tour.

The Taylorville High School graduate is a fundraiser for the New Sudan Education Initiative, dedicated to building schools in southern Sudan.

Henderlight is addressing churches, high school, colleges and civic organizations through Labor Day. She will be at Pilling Chapel at Millikin University at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The public is invited.

"I hope to raise enough money to purchase a tractor," she said. "It's desperately needed." Henderlight was elated the other day when a crop of tomatoes was sold for $20.

She travels back and forth between her home in east Tennessee and the African nation. In addition to the schools project and the Tractor Tour, she helps "the Lost Boys of Sudan," displaced by civil war in the region, in their relocation to the United States.

"I just wrapped up a tour which took me to Miami and Los Angeles," she said. She said the group has received a grant from the World Bank's Development Marketplace but relies heavily on individual donations.

"In addition to grassroots funding, I'm letting people know about the Sudan rebuilding project," she said.

Sudan, the largest country in Africa, has been involved in civil war since the 1980s. Thousands of children have experienced violence and intense hardship, arriving as refugees in Kenya without parents.

"More schools, particularly secondary schools, are needed," Henderlight said. The group's goal is to build 20 schools by 2015.

"The area I'm involved in signed a peace agreement in 2005," she said. "We feel secure at this time."

However, fighting continues in the Darfur region in the west. "We need a peacekeeping group there," she said.

"More schools are a social/business development situation. We want to build vocational skills and teach students about farming, giving a hand up, not a hand out. We want then to be self-sufficient."

For a $450 donation, you can sponsor a girl to go to a boarding school for a year.

Anita's speaking schedule was arranged by Steffanie Seegmiller of Arthur. "Steffanie is a powerhouse," Henderlight said. "She's a catalyst for good.

"She and I attended the same church in Springfield years ago and were walking buddies. She found me again after we were separated and convinced me to come to Illinois to tell my story."

Henderlight was working for the United Methodist Church when she read the book "They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky," written by three of the Lost Boys, Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng and Benjamin Ajak, with Judy A. Bernstein.

"I went in search of Lost Boys and found some outside Knoxville. They encouraged me to join the battle."

She began corresponding with the New Sudan Education Initiative. In April 2006, she took her first trip to Sudan, meeting with many people, and last year she began working full time for the organization.

bfallstrom@herald-review.com|421-7981