Dau Jok continues work for youth foundation

If you picked up the DP today you'll notice that men's basketball sophomore Dau Jok is back in the headlines, even though practice doesn't officially start until tomorrow.

The Dut Jok Youth Foundation, named in honor of Dau's late father, held its first awareness meeting last night in Houston Hall, and brought out over 50 interested members of the community:

“Education is much more powerful than violence,” Jok told the group. “Kids in South Sudan don’t have the opportunity to fail like we do at Penn. Our goal is to teach them the value of a true education.”

Jok has lofty goals for the group, mainly raising $65,000 to fund his work. As you might remember, Dau earned a $10,000 grant in a Davis Projects for Peace award. Last semester the DP wrote a stirring profile of his time growing up in Sudan which inspired him to start the foundation.

Jok also traveled to Rwanda this summer with a Penn group (including teammate Zack Rosen) on a community service-based trip. He was supposed to continue on to Sudan to aid in the work for his foundation, but was forced to return home due to violence that broke out there this summer.

Nonetheless, he is moving forward with the work here in the States. From the DP:

Members of Jok’s foundation were selling bracelets and about 50 attendees signed up for more information. “The event made progress, as our goal is to promote recruiting and awareness,” Jok said.