 There are thousands of South Sudanese who have settled in the greater Portland area. Project BASIA is a non-profit organization that educates people living here from South Sudan, especially children. Leslie McVane talked with its founder, BASIA, about the organization. Well, BASIA, Project BASIA is a new, relatively new non-profit organization. And recently joined Community Television Network. Now, this is a brainchild of you. That's right. Tell me how it came about. Maybe first of all, tell us where you come from and a little bit about your background and how you got here. First of all, my background, I'm from South Sudan. And according to my parents, we grew in a different situation in South Sudan, according. South Sudan be fast for a long time. That's a long story, but let me make it too short. And my dad was a military and he came to the United States in 1983 when Reagan was the president. And we almost, in my own tribe, we almost cared about our other brothers and sisters. And that's one of the things. I'm just connected to what my parents or my grandpa does. Almost whatever I go, I pay attention to other. The other thing, the very important, I've been around more than 27 countries in the world. They give me a lot of ideas. Perspective. Perspective and all that. So you came here to Portland, Maine in what year? I mean, Portland, maybe one year, but I was in Philly. Okay. Yeah, that's my face when I get to the United States. And then came here. Yeah. And there's quite a large population of people from South Sudan. Yeah, we're talking about between 3,000 or more than that. Right, in Portland? Yes, in Portland. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So this idea came about to start an organization for and about people from South Sudan. South Sudan, especially. And it's Carl's project. Yeah, that's correct. This is your project. Now tell me what you hope to do, what your mission is with this project. First of all, the very important to unite them in the discipline and respect and talking about how we can help them to have education in a better way. And especially since South Sudan became a country. To be a country that's not just a flock, it's a job. A lot of my idea or my belief, the more people they be educated of education, the more they be able to stand for their own right for their own country. And this is one of my goals, to have that education done a different way to help. And I believe it will let them understand life better, even in American society. According to in America, you need to know English. When you know English, you will learn a lot of. So I'm putting the two way to be educated in the United States and at the same time to be educated to help your own people. I think that's lovely. What is the official language in South Sudan? We have a lot of language. But generally, when Sudan was one country, they almost used Arabic. Arabic. Yeah, and then South Sudan have Arabic they call like Juba Arabic. It's just like, I can put example, if you had about Jamaica, Jamaica, they don't have language, but when they did, they changed. Patwa. Yeah, patwa. I lived in Jamaica. So we have the same thing like that. I mean, among we are South Sudanese, we speak Arabic Juba. But I think what you say about education is very important. So your web page, you have very nice web page for Project Bazaar. That's right. Which is, what is your web page? Project Bazaar. Right. Yeah, that's it. And so we'll put that on the bottom of the thing. That's right. And is there a telephone number that people call? We have a telephone number on 207-615-8884. Okay. Well, that's good to have for the people who are interested and maybe helping out in some way. Or if there are some people from South Sudan who don't know about your organization, I think you've hit it. Education is key to everything. It's a key for everything. Yeah. There's a lot of my goal to make what's supposed to be done. Because the more you give a chance for people to know the education, the more the life can be open better. Now, briefly, we don't have much time, but do you have some projects coming up that the community might be involved in? We have one project right now that's working on it for Disney World 2014, for the kids. One of the reasons we need to unite them, I mean, are going to sponsor kids from different states. It's like, in this month, I'm going to Dallas, Texas. So I'm looking for 100 to 200 kids. But I just, maybe in May, I can take 20, maybe in New Hampshire, maybe in Dallas. So I'll look at it as something. So that's something that you'll keep us informed that we'll have you back as you get more into the project. That's right. But now we've given everyone a chance to get to know you, get to know the organization. That's right. And good luck and thank you very much. Thank you again.