My name is Arek Lual, and I arrived in the United States in 2015 from South Sudan with my two oldest children to be with my husband James, who had been resettled in Boulder as a Lost Boy from Sudan in 2001. We gave birth to our third child in 2017, and spent 8 years in Aurora where we raised our three children.

On September 29, my three children and their father were in a serious car accident at the intersection of Havana and Exposition in Aurora after another driver ran a red light, striking my family’s car, causing a rollover, and ultimately killing my 5 year-old son, Deng, and his father James Wol Jong. My other two children Adut, age 8, and Jong, age 10, were taken to the hospital with significant injuries.

Thanks to the incredible staff at Children’s Hospital, both Adut and Jong are expected to survive, and god willing, will be back home with me by the end of the month. However their ongoing physical and psychological recovery will take much, much longer. As a newly single parent, I am not sure what the future financial burden will be as we navigate the next phases of this painful chapter in our lives. I am temporarily unable to work while I stay home to help my children recover.

I am devastated by the loss of my youngest son and his father. We are crushed as a family. But we are also committed to persevering through this difficult time and focusing on the recovery and ongoing care of my two surviving children.

I am raising funds for my children’s continuing recovery and living expenses for the long, long healing process ahead. Please contribute as you are able.