Refugee Week

This week has been Refugee Week. 

refugee camp

Growing up in a small town,

I never had much experience

with refugees. 

I never had much experience with

people who weren’t “just like me”.

At 16, I suddenly became the

“only person who looked just like me”

and my ideas of people

and the world shifted a little.

In my early 20s,

I taught teenagers

from war-torn nations. 

I tried to teach kids

whose minds were stuck

in violent countries... 

Their heads were filled

with memories of violent deaths

and public hangings... 

Their thoughts were always

with their old friends –

 friends they had left behind,

leaving them feeling incredible guilt... 

The kids were worried for parents,

who were suffering poor health

 because of the stress and worry

that goes with fleeing a country

and keeping your family alive... 

I didn’t teach those kids much -

(for a while)

but they taught me

so much.

You teach those kids

and you are changed forever.

A refugee is: “Any person who owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his/her nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country.”

There are many refugee stories you can read.

This is Aduc’s story. 

The civil war in Sudan compelled Aduc Barec to flee to neighbouring Ethiopia with her husband and two young children in the early 1990s. The family travelled on foot with a group of young boys orphaned by the civil war, one of many such groups who would later become known as the “Lost Boys of Sudan”.

“It was a big challenge leaving Sudan to go to Ethiopia. We walked to Ethiopia and it took us a month. It was difficult as it was a new area, very hard. We went with Lost Boys. There was [sic] about 300, 400 who lost their parents and they missed their parents. They couldn’t cope and the weather was bad and no good food. It took a while for UNHCR to find us.”

Aduc remained in Ethiopia for six years before political instability again placed her family in danger and they were forced to flee back to the Sudanese border. They were eventually found by UNHCR and moved to a refugee camp in Kenya.

“It was a very hard life. I can’t imagine it now but it was a very tough life…It was very scary. So hot and windy and a lot of dust. You don’t know what’s going to happen to your future and [my] kids’ future. The kids needed education and so did we. There were a lot of insecurities.”

It would be another five years before UNHCR secured resettlement for Aduc and her family. She arrived in Australia in 1997

“The people were really very nice. The day we came it was raining and a man named Mark from St Vincent De Paul came to pick us up. They helped us a lot and taught us everything…We don’t forget them and are still in contact sometimes.”

Aduc lives in Gosford with her husband and children, who now number six. She works as a nurse in a retirement village and as a casual interpreter.

“I was a nurse in Sudan and I kept doing that when I went to the refugee camp at a clinic and I was giving medication away. So I continued here and now have Certificate III and want to do Certificate IV…It’s good to help people, remind[s] me of back home where I took care of the Lost Boys.”

I can't imagine living 11 years

never knowing what would happen.

I can't imagine living 11 years

not having control over your life.

I can't imagine living 11 years

being told how to raise my child.