 The goal of Project Bazia is to bring together Sudanese refugees from around the world and unite them in the belief that regardless of where they live, they are all one people. Ryan Knoblock spoke to the program's founder, Bazia, about his organization's mission. Bazia, tell me about your project. Project Bazia is about how to put the kids of South Sudan together, unite them over a diaspora. A diaspora is like everywhere in different countries. We can say Canada, Australia, South Sudan, Europe, anywhere in South Sudan. And how many are there throughout the world? In America, I have, in the United States, only like 100,000 South Sudanese in America. And I believe in Canada, we have 675. And in Australia, we've got close to 800,000 of South Sudanese in Australia. And what are the goals of your project? The goal is very important. It's about education and about letting them learn how to be a good citizen of the United States and in all the countries in the world, even in South Sudan or in America. The best way to do it, to the United people, you've got to have a goal. We're going to be here today because we're going to have one of the tribes of South Sudan going to have a dance. And then I'll put it to be a kids better than the big people. That's keeping the legacy of the child of South Sudan still traditional in Africa. Let's talk about the dancers for a bit. What kind of, what is the dance that they're going to be doing represent? It presents one tribe. If I put it in the big name, it's supposed to be a Lua. A Lua under that tribe, we have Asholi, we have Nuer, we have Anuak, and we have Asholi. All this is one tribe, but it's kind of different door on the same tribe. And it means something to them. And that's one of the, the long story back in the day in the United States, when they bring the slave people from Africa was, a lot of them was from Lua tribe. So it's just, like, it means something to them. And is this a troop tour of the United States, or do you have plans for the mid-tour? Yeah, we have, we're thinking about Dallas, Texas, we're thinking about Jacksonville because I have a trip for 2014. For the kids of South Sudan, I'm going to sponsor some kids to take them to Disney World. And it's kind of any child born in any country know what they love to be in Disney World. And what kind of support do you provide for the South Sudanese diaspora that's here in Maine? In Maine, I'll talk about, I can just make example for myself. To be in the United States was one of my dream, and I can say I'm American child dream. I'll talk about all the stuff about the system, how to make them to be a good citizen. And when I say a good citizen, it's about the book. That means to take the law and understand the law in the good way because it will save your life in the better way. Because the key for all that is about education. The more we educate them in education, and the more we take the education and put it in a simple life, we'll see the result better. Does the society need education and then use the education in the life? You will see the difference. What kind of challenges do the South Sudanese have here in the United States? One of the challenges is because since we have a lot of different tribes, sometimes it's hard to unite them. But what I believe, what I'm doing, I'm thinking about the child. When you say a child, because the grown people, the father of the mom of the cousin, they're already grown, I can say they have a brain set up. But for the kids, I believe they're easy to accept, they're united in a good way. Do the children, I know that they want to preserve their own culture and their own heritage, but at the same time they want to integrate into the United States society as well, how do they manage that balance? Oh, okay, good. One of the things I'm working on, it's like teach them to be a good citizen. And teach them, when you say American dream, it's not to just follow different directions. It's about respect, it's about education, and be a dependent. The only key for that is how to teach them. And the child is almost, if you have a direction, or pick the right model in the front of them, they will look at it as an example. Because there's nobody born to know everything. But if I'm born before them, and I've been through a life, and I just look at it, if I'm educated, I need to go back to teach my own people. That's a simple matter to start, look at the volume of the education, and trust that to the kids. If people want more information about your project, or want to help you with it, where can they go for more information? You can go through my website. I got projectbazilla.com. That's one of, you can see what I do, if you want to be a part of it. You can look at the website, and you will feel free. If you want to be a part of it, to become a friend, or you want to donate for the project bazilla, you'll be willing to go online, you'll see all the information you need to know.