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There are an estimated 25 million displaced persons around the world.

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The family you're about to meet is beginning their long journey home to southern Sudan.

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After years of civil war, is it possible their home will still be there?

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Or will their hopes be shattered? Here's their story.

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In this refugee camp in Sudan, many harbour dreams of returning to the villages of their childhood.

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It's better. That's my village. I will go there even if it's bad.

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Jackson Daw was only 10 years old when civil war forced his family to flee their home in southern Sudan.

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They, like millions of others, became outcasts in their own country.

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Victims of the longest civil war in African history.

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Millions had no rights. Those who robbed us, we called them armed forces.

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The war in southern Sudan began 23 years ago when rebels from the south,

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most of them Christian or traditional African faiths, took up arms against the Islamic government in Khartoum.

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More than 2 million people were killed in the war or in the famine it triggered.

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In January of 2005, the Khartoum government and rebel leaders signed a power-sharing deal to end the war,

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triggering Jackson's dreams of a return to the village of his birth.

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That's where they cut my umbilical cord. That's the land of my grandfather. I'll stay there.

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It's estimated that 3 million southerners stuck in refugee camps like this will soon want to return home.

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But what will they find when they get there? Are their dreams of a blissful homeland really viable?

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Many, like this community leader, think so.

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Now that God has brought peace, we will return to cultivate our land.

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If you have a fishing rod, you can fish. That's why we are going.

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And so for Jackson, like so many others, the journey begins.

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With money he has been saving for months, Jackson plans the voyage.

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He gathers his family group, all 17 of them, and they pack everything.

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His children are about to leave the only home they have ever known.

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The family heads off to the nearby port of Kosti on the river Nile,

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where they plan to catch a cargo barge that will pass their old home village.

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By first light, Jackson's family gets on board.

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The boat won't be leaving until the next morning, but emotions are running high.

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Finally, the next day, the captain pulls out of port.

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Jackson's family is confined to a small space between the main engine and a cargo bay.

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The family faces a three-day, 400-kilometer voyage from Kosti to their home port of Melut.

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Others are heading to the southern capital of Juba, 1,200 kilometers away.

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They will be on board for more than two weeks.

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With the barge continuing its way south at a stately 10 kilometers an hour,

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Jackson's family has found a relatively safe and sheltered corner.

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Now they and others on board have time to think and to worry.

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John Kong comes from a village near the eastern border.

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He is leading a family group of 23.

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I have nothing. No cows.

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And even the people on board have nothing.

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No cows, no food.

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We will depend on the little the United Nations gives us to eat.

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Many international organizations are involved in Sudan's reconstruction.

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The United Nations has launched a $3.5 million construction project to build new schools in southern Sudan.

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It's also supporting various public health campaigns to battle diseases like polio, measles and meningitis,

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and it's helping to repatriate the tens of thousands who are trying to come home.

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But despite international efforts, nearly every district in southern Sudan fails their minimum standard for clean water.

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Schools, health services and communications are all in short supply.

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There's no issue or activity that you could list that isn't required.

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Robert Turner is with the United Nations Return and Reintegration Unit.

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We need to be doing emergency food aid now because it's required.

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We need to be looking at the longer-term interventions, including building roads and infrastructure

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and improving people's access to livelihoods.

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The power-sharing peace treaty is supposed to give the south a split share of Sudan's emerging oil wealth

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along with new government and civil service jobs.

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But for now, Jackson and his family are about to find out the reality of life in southern Sudan.

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The barge finally arrives at Jackson's stop.

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This is Mailut, the port near their home village of Falouge.

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Jackson's family is about to get some terrible news.

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The village he loved and dreamed about for so long is gone, burned to the ground during the war.

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Some relatives have offered to take them in, but not for long.

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I'm worried because I don't have a place. When I get my place, I'll be happy.

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The village may be gone, but for Jackson Daw, hope is certainly alive.

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He recalls another village where his relatives had a vast herd of some 5,000 cattle.

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There's no usable road, but a bicycle will get you there in about an hour.

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When Jackson arrives, this is what he finds.

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The great herd of 5,000 is now barely 100.

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In a land where wealth is measured in cattle, this is a devastating loss.

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The 600 villagers are hungry, poor and desperate.

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Jackson's uncle explains the terrible situation.

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There's no food here. In the past, we used to have milk.

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But now the people are suffering.

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A country like this, and there are many, will not be able to sustain

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the hundreds of thousands of returnees coming home to southern Sudan.

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There are not enough government resources,

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and promises of more than $4.5 billion pledged by international donors are not being kept.

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The coming of peace was a huge step. It was a huge positive step.

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But it alone is not enough to sustain peace or reconciliation or anything else.

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We need to see the dividend of the peace beyond the fact that there's no war.

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The children in Jackson's uncle's village sing of God.

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Their faith will sustain them for now, but to build a new Sudan,

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they need help, and they need it soon.

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According to the World Food Program, more than 600,000 people

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are expected to return to southern Sudan within the next year.