In Dec. 2013, only two and a half years after South Sudan celebrated its first independence day, tensions between the countrys two main ethnic groups erupted into violence. Only 19 months into independence, the worlds youngest country was plunged into civil war.

In addition to giving monetary aid, the international community has stepped up in other ways, providing medical and media attention to the area. Contributing what they can through knowledge and expertise in their respective fields, three UC Davis alumni have been performing such work in South Sudan since the nations inception.

Dr. Matthew Fentress, who graduated from the UC Davis School of Medicine in 2008, currently works in South Sudan with Doctors Without Borders, a medical non-profit organization. Prior to this, Fentress worked with the Global Health Fellowship in developing countries.

The first part of that [Global Health Fellowship] I spent a total of six or seven months in South Sudan, Fentress said. I always knew I wanted to work either outside of the country in the places that didnt have a lot of resources and doctors, or, I wanted to work in areas in our own country where thats the case.

Although Fentress had strong and early convictions about working in a conflict-ridden area, UC Davis history and international relations alum Ismail Kushkush had no plans on working in South Sudan post-graduation. Kushkush now works for The New York Times, reporting in East Africa.

I did take a course in journalism at UC Davis, I just thought of it as a side interest, not something Id be doing for this long, Kushkush said. I thought Id be a history professor!

As an agricultural economics undergraduate student at UC Davis, Dr. Sue Lautze was similarly unaware of her future career in humanitarian aid. Lautze, a representative for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations, recently returned to South Sudan after giving talks internationally.

I wanted to go into the international grain trade, and so I had studied Mandarin as well as the economic aspects [of grain trade] when I was at Davis. I went off to China right after UC Davis on a program that put me in the ministry of culture, Lautze said. There, I met some people working for the United Nations (UN) and got to talking to them. I thought Id be working on that for just a little while but its now 26 years later and Ive gotten more and more deeply involved with humanitarian efforts.

Despite the broad range of their studies, all three alumni are working tirelessly in South Sudan, doing whatever they can to help.

The history of conflict in the three-year-old country predates its independence. Serious violent clashes between North and South Sudan began in the early 60s, and tensions ranging from small-scale violence to full-blown civil war continued up until 2011.

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Three UC Davis Alumni lend aid and a voice to South Sudan