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Colleen French [ Profil ] |
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article: Former Lost Bay now fights for youth
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Aug 3rd, 2009 - 09:58:23 |
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Former Lost boy now fights for youth
By Robert Remington, Calgary Herald
August 1, 2009
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Former+Lost+fights+youth/1852130/story.html
When he was 17, David Farajalla fled into the bush when fighting broke
out in his village in southern Sudan. For three days he ran, scared,
alone and not sure where he was heading.
"No food, no water. Lots of wild animals at night. I was afraid. There
were dead bodies on the ground."
Eventually, he found himself in a rebel-controlled area. His safety was
shortlived-- South Sudanese rebel forces wanted him to fight with them.
Rather than become a soldier, Farajalla kept running. He snuck away from
the rebel soldiers and, after three months, made it to a refugee camp in
western Uganda. He had become a Lost Boy--one of the 27,000 boys who
were either displaced or orphaned during the Sudanese civil war that
raged from 1983 to 2005, killing an estimated two million people and
forcing four million from their homes.
Farajalla, now 30 and a student at SAIT, has organized a youth
conference today for fellow Sudanese to discuss issues around immigrant
refugee dropout rates and teen pregnancy.
According to a 2001 report by the National Reference Group on Visible
Minorities, "a significant number (of refugees) struggle with issues
such as high dropout rates . . . teenage pregnancy and dead-end jobs,
sometimes leading to illegal activities."
Cutbacks to social programs and a shift of responsibilities to lower
levels of government have compounded the problems, the report said.
Farajalla believes little has changed since then and says governments
could do more to help immigrant youth, especially refugees, adjust.
"It's because of the war," he says of the issues facing refugee youth.
"A lot of people came from camps. They saw a lot of war and conflict."
The information technology student and former meat packing plant worker,
who has lived in the Calgary area for five years, experienced first-hand
the tumultuous conditions that lead to problems for refugee youth later
in life.
After three years of harsh conditions in the Ugandan camp, Farajalla
organized a group of boys to run away.
They headed for Kampala, the capital, where they staged a hunger strike
and wrote a seven-page memo to the United Nations about their plight.
Farajalla arrived in Canada with refugee status, landing in London,
Ont., before moving shortly to Winnipeg.
"Life was difficult for me. I wasn't use to the weather, the food--I had
been on a hunger strike--and the culture. Everything. I wanted to go to
my family back home."
He stayed in Winnipeg seven months before moving to Alberta.
Although the conference is focused on children and women from his own
Fertit ethnic group, Farajalla says the issues are common to many
immigrants in Canada.
The conference, assisted with a grant from Child and Youth Friendly
Calgary, is expected to attract about 100 Sudanese from Alberta,
Ontario, the U. S. and Australia, Farajalla said.
The goal, he said, is remarkably simple, but not easy to achieve: to get
parents, women and youth working together "to encourage kids to do their
homework, their tutoring and to keep busy so they don't get off track
and do bad things in the city."
With youth and gang issues plaguing nearly every major city, it's a
small, noble effort from a group of concerned people trying to save
their kids.
rremington (at) theherald. canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
--
Colleen French
Communication and Networking Coordinator / Coordinatrice de la communication et du réseautage
Canadian Council for Refugees / Conseil canadien pour les réfugiés
6839A Drolet #302, Montréal QC, H2S 2T1
Tel : (514) 277-7223, extension / poste 1
Fax / Téléc. : (514) 277-1447
Email / Courriel : cfrench (at) ccrweb.ca
Website / Site web : www.ccrweb.ca
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