Lynn health worker receives Roosevelt Award

LYNN – A Sudanese woman who left her mark of social activism at the Lynn Community Health Center was recently presented the 2010 Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.Lynn resident Sarah Rial, a 43-year-old mother of three boys, is program director for My Sister’s Keeper, a Boston-based humanitarian organization focused on righting the wrongs against women and girls in Sudan.Clinton gave her the award last week and called her a woman with a long history of dedication to organizations working to empower women and advocate for peace.”As you well know, Sarah is a native of southern Sudan, who heads up MSKeeper’s programs on girls’ education, adult literacy and currently is leading an unprecedented peace-building initiative among women representing diverse regions, races, religions and ethnicities throughout wartorn Sudan and the Diaspora,” Clinton said.The secretary of state noted that prior to working with My Sister’s Keeper, Rial was community programs case manager for the Lynn Community Health Center and employment services manager for the Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Boston’s Refugee and Immigration Services.Rial is also co-founder and president of the African Women’s Empowerment Group, a non-profit organization helping immigrant and refugee women to achieve self-sufficiency.Rial found her voice as a human-rights activist while a young university student in Khartoum, where she was born.”I was arrested when I was 17 years old because of the way I was dressed. I was put in an open truck that was driven around town. People were looking at me and throwing things at me and then I was taken to a civil court where I was interrogated and humiliated,” she said. “Many others suffered worse. That kind of mistreatment and the civil unrest in Sudan triggered my political activism.”It soon became clear to Rial that if she continued to stay in Sudan, her life would be in danger.In 1993, she was awarded a scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in political science at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. After completing her studies, she applied to and was granted refugee status from the United Nations and was resettled in Lynn in 1999.Ten years later, the mother of three sons ? ages 11, 6 and 4 ? was singled out to receive this commendation on behalf of all Sudanese women working to build peace.”For more than 25 years I have been advocating for the lives of the marginalized people in Sudan and I specifically focus on the importance of women’s voices to be part of this movement,” said Rial.