From Refugee to Global Ambassador | Ger Duany | TEDxPlaceDesNations

my life set against the backdrop of extended civil war between the north and south of Sudan a war that claims over 2.5 million people my mothers have 11 of us and I was a middle child six and my brothers and sisters were claimed by that Civil War so I became a second older to the five who are alive today you see when I was growing up in a greater Cobo and it small village called lid I did what every child like to do we used to go to the forest to go hunt for honey and birds and sometimes we goes about our way to go more mud as a cow just to imitate our way of life in the evening we pick up fruits and then we bring them home to mom and then she prepared the food for us already as soon as we finished eating the firewood is being prepared then we sit around and she start telling us stories the Fox tale stories those were the founders memories of my life of the child during the dry season our father ordered us to go to the great open aisle where our cows graze green grass then we get an opportunity to go fishing hunting and evening we get to go to the functions where we sing songs about traditions and also it's always a message about those songs so our life was very peaceful one morning I was awakened by the collapse of ak-47 like and my mom started screaming Geir can wake up we are about to die so I woke up of my eyes was blurry try to see I couldn't see anything when I got an opportunity to see things and then I was just seeing a lot of bullets flying through us because it was early in the mornings you could see the flame of the bullets just flying by my mom clash little twins to our shoulder and she starts spreading to a denial my little sister and I who was 7 years young was 7 years 7 years younger and I'm 9 at the time we started following our mom we dove right into a water and we start swimming as fast as possible to go to other end of the banks when we got there I start to see the glow of the Sun and we continue to run and we - inside the long grass and we went for quite some time running and the bullets couldn't stops coming our way we got to the area where there's a bunch of termites mom's mom sat me down seguir you got to sit here with your brothers and sisters so that I'm going to go look for your father dead or alive mom took off she left here with three little one asking people have you seen my husband my husband abide she continued to go on some of the people were hurt until mom disappeared out of my sight later that evening he said she even went and flipped dead bodies to see if she can find my father but my father was fighting miles away but a hail of bullets like that will make you forget which way to go and what to ask mom came back that evening she brought fish she fed us and she strategize she said we have to go to Ethiopia I say where is it yo Pia say two of the Rising Sun early in the morning we start collecting our little position that we have and we left walking to Ethiopia I try to forget that day I try very hard but I couldn't because was the day my life or our lives were shattered and we were scattered everywhere and then we were introduced as the new refugees in Ethiopia which was our neighboring country I live in at the OPF for four years in a refugee camp is called little twin they get to enjoy that one day a meal because food were provided by the UN refugee agency my little sister and I we enjoy lecture either going to school under the tree where we had to scratch our ABCs on the ground but something unusual was coming the civil war erupted in Ethiopia in 1991 on May 26 I remember very well that's the day that I lost contact with my mom my brothers and many of my siblings an arrow by Duran separate direction I ran towards to dad by myself I was of age I was about age of 13 I walk in a flooded season day in day out until I find a military base that had food and water and also security and I didn't hesitate to join and I became a child soldier I spent months in the military base my work was very basic we prepare food and some time we clean guns for the guys who really participate on regular basis in Fighting's but a huge batter came to our area our military camps where they kill most of my friend that I sleep with them in the same blanket every day but a lot and yong-chol I ran so fast until I forgot where I was going that day was a turning point for me that's when I asked myself if I stay here in this country Sudan my life is going to end like mud a lot and yong-chol that's the day that I decided to really attach myself to the band of boys who were going to Ethiopia to seek for safety we walk 520 miles we were dug in encampments and corpses who would try to risk our lives luckily we got to Ethiopia and we met a man who was driving a truck we give him few bucks and then he put us in his trucks took us across a Gopa all the way to the border Ethiopia and Kenya so we find another truck and they took me across Kenya and then they took me to the refugee camps called that I before the devil was a very desert place barely tree there hundred and twenty degree every day I find it tough to live there but I had hopes to be there because we heard there was an opportunity to be resettled in the United States dead mark Norway Canada so I have something to live for and I waited in that refugee camp for over a year and it sound like a decade to me when I was there trust me one day a blessing came from somewhere where our names was appear on the board of the UNHCR that we are elected to go to eat to to America and I was very happy because they say if you get to America you will go to school you would get to work so I was ready to work and provide for my family and those that I left behind but I was very young at the time because I was only 15 years old however we went to the procedure where we have to go to the interview with a lawyer then we pass and then went from there and then they took us from night they took us from Evoque m to Nairobi in the real refugee camp right in the middle of Nairobi so that we can do our medical check we did our medical check and four of us past two in two weeks our name appear again that we have we are flying to the United States I remember coming close to the airplane I never know airplane is as big as this even a guy who's six-foot I can walk and even go use the restroom inside the airplane so I have a lot of mixed mixed emotion as you can imagine i sat in there and I was very quiet because when something confused me I go silent for a very long time I couldn't believe this machine gonna lift me up and check me all the way to a different land and it did that evening and I landed in JFK not to live there but to make a connection to go to where our sponsor was which is Des Moines Iowa when I got to JFK I never seen a place where I can't distinguish night and day because it was so bright with so many lights seeing so many people walking many different directions I don't know where they're going or where they're coming from dragging suitcases and Here I am carrying a plastic bags when you in refugee camp I thought Paul can speak good English so Paul went on try to make a connection asking this guy do you know this - I ho hey dis - a hora it's like give me your ticket the guy looked at it is like oh this is Des Moines Iowa so that day a new poll English was dying so we made our connection and we made it to Des Moines Iowa we will receive by our colleagues who came a year before show was around my thoughts all about school school school is something that I was I was risking my life for to come to the strain land where I have to learn how to live and how I have to learn to navigate and make something of myself and the dream that one day I can go home or one day I can read and write that was a motivation that I always have I'm glad I can tell this story to you guys not in my mother tongue in your language I was 15 16 years old I was put in a class with American kids Cambodia and Bosnia and who I had the same common ground with them because they were having the same trouble in their own country in English was this was the second language to all of us I work as hard as possible so that I can really understand what the teacher is saying and I picked up the game of basketball which become a huge part of my life that kept me grounded because I was dealing with post-riot post-traumatic stress disorder a basketball helped me luckily I even got a scholarship at a high school when I graduated it in 1998 and then I went on to college who I was playing college basketball at University of Bridgeport in Connecticut and that I finished my degree another opportunity was coming to me it's called acting I remember one afternoon a friend of ours named a nutball who was a superhero almost all South Sudanese people and it's a well-known basketball player in America invited us over to his house to audition for a movie for universal a guy David David O Russell's one of the guy from Sudan who have dealt with real life experiences so that day was just more like reunion for me to see my son Sudanese people and play basketball I got in front of the camera I wasn't sure what I was doing but three months later on I was called there for the role in the movie that many many thousands of guys all around the world was looking for their role I was flawed I was flying to LA and the next things I know I'm in a trailer with the people that I've been watching on TV doing a rehearsal with them he was Dustin Hoffman next to me Lily Tomlin Jude Law Mark Wahlberg and Jonah Hill's tonight were the first that was our first doubt hey if anybody ever tell you that making a movie is glamour they lie to you Johanna and I we have learned from very beginning but now Johanna become bigger than life I'm glad it's not in this room we went on and we shot that movie and that's how I was introduced into a film when I was growing up I want to be a storyteller and my mom was doing that now I'm telling story in a form of a films something that I enjoy very well so I switch coasts I went to New York so that I can audition more instead of commute between Connecticut and New York what something was was aching in my heart after 18 years of me natima mom my father and all my sibling that I left behind I decided to really take an airplane from JFK and went all the way to Nairobi Kenya to Sudan and I start searching for my mom in 2010 until I find her in the village where she have given birth to me October we went and voted it because our country was splitting from the north we vote together that's the war that make her lose six other children so I thought it was the best way for us to do do do it together so that we vote and then we separate so all of us had had a power to do that even though we don't have to participate in the physical war and I told my mom that our dream came true that day South Sudan became independent country and I went back to New York the reason I'm telling you guys this story is because in 2015 have seen so many refugees fleeing from their own home looking for places to live refugees are your family and mine they are currently looking for place to live in this world that we call home or the place that we share all of us if opportunity is provided to refugees the transformation co-occur and then they can thrive and become citizens of this world and to me that's the way that we have to revive the humanity because we chipped away based on conflict that has taken toll on all of us if intelligent resettlement is given to refugees to give them vital skills with the intention to hire them into the area and use the experience that they have in these places that could be another way to to prevent conflict to happen in the first place and thank you so much that's my story you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 85,974

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Switzerland, Global Issues, Adventure, Africa, Africans, America, Big problems, Career, Cause, Childhood, Children, Civil War, Compassion, Developing World, Education, Emotions, Empathy, Family, Film, Flight, Freedom, Global issues, Happiness, Ideas, Immigration, Impact, Initiative, International Affairs, Language, Life, Mindfulness, Motivation, Peace, Population, Purpose, Recovery, Refugee, Schools, Sharing, Society, Struggle, Travel, Violence, War, Youth

Id: O0fUGdXaJYk

Length: 20min 6sec (1206 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 10 2016