We read about wars overseas but for the most part, have little understanding of the impact it has on the people involved in or affected by them.
In 2003, Sudan was locked in a 22-year civil war that had seen some two million people killed and a further four million people displaced. Along with a group of a dozen or more other boys, a small and slim, ten-year-old travelled to Kenya to the safety of a refugee camp, separated from his family that had been left in the war zone.
For the next seven years, Abraham Awan found refuge in the camp of some 250,000 people, alone except for his youthful travel companions. After a few years, an international organisation who specialised in reunions was able to repatriate his mother and two younger sisters from Sudan, Rebecca and Elizabeth to join him in the camp.
To survive and while undertaking his own studies through primary and secondary school, Abraham had been assisting teaching the younger children of the camp.
In 2016, Abraham and his two sisters obtained a refugee visa to migrate to Australia. The family was located in Shepparton where he attended the Shepparton English Language School and was soon engaged as an assistant.
Following on from his time in the refugee camp, Abraham took an interest in teaching and has been studying at Latrobe University for three years to become a primary school teacher while at the same time, looking after his two sisters. Now aged 16 and 19, both girls attend the McGuire campus of Greater Shepparton Secondary College. Their mother is still residing in the camp in Kenya. His father had passed away in Sudan some years ago.
As a young man, being self-sufficient from such a young age, Abraham is a credit to his family and origins and will play a pivotal role in the future for Shepparton’s multicultural community.
