Antoni Bazia
Chairman & Founder

  Bazia emigrated from South Sudan in 1997 and founded Project Bazia in 2012.  He has spent the last 20 years working with members of the Sudanese diaspora and speaking out about the needs of his community. Read his story in Chocolate Boy​!

Ann B. Smith
​Treasurer & CoFounder

Ann worked as an English Teacher in New Hampshire for 36 years before partnering with Bazia to launch the Project in 2012.    She  and Bazia have co-authored five books (available at Amazon under Project Bazia) and plan to develop many more. 
"I had always wanted to part of something big, and I was so inspired by Bazia’s dreams of educating African immigrants to unite with others in creating a better world that I have been working with him and the community he serves ever since. Working with new Americans broadens my view of the world, and sharing the challenges which they meet with courage and determination gives me hope for the future of Planet Earth."

A Word from Bazia

​My full name is Antoni Bazia, but I prefer to be called Bazia because that name represents generations of leaders of the tribe called the Luo from what is now South Sudan. I was born in Wau where my father, Henry Bazia, my grandfather, Guma Bazia, and many generations of Bazias before them were tribal chiefs.  I grew up there learning all about leadership in the footsteps of my father. 

I decided to emigrate to America because after the long South Sudanese civil war, many of my fellow South Sudanese were here.  Some were called the Lost Boys because they had wandered all over East Africa after their homes were destroyed by the conflict.  Eventually many of them traveled to the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia where I traveled to work with my community all over the world. Today, I support South Sudanese and other Africans here in Portland, helping them to succeed in their new home.

My non-profit organization, Project Bazia, has been incorporated since 2012.  Project Bazia presently oversees an organization for immigrant youth at Portland High School called Bright Future. We assist these youth with their education and career decisions and encourage them to be good citizens by volunteering and learning how to succeed here in America. I am always on call in person, by phone, and on line to give advice and encouragement to anyone in the refugee community in addition to my fellow South Sudanese. I also travel to address immigrants in other diaspora communities where I like to say to my African brothers and sisters, “America is the most wonderful country in the world.  If you can’t make it here, then God will say to you, ‘I’m sorry; you can’t make it anywhere!”    (You can hear a  live interview with Bazia if you click here.)