RELATED: Support to focus on studies
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The lost boys. That’s the name Galou Mabior said was given to the boys, like him, who roamed Sudan in search of safety during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
Much like the characters in Peter Pan, they had lost contact with their parents.
Many never grew up, Galou said – but for reasons starkly different to the inhabitants of author J. M. Barrie’s fictional Neverland.
It was the ’80s, and the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army were at war.
Villages were bombarded as the government sought to quash the rebellion, Galou said.
“There was an attack at night,” he said.
“It was a big disaster. They were killing, especially male people, taking girls and women, and if you don’t want to accept it you run away.”
On the night he was separated from his parents, Galou said he woke to the sound of gunfire.
“You just wake up and run in the direction you are heading to,” he said.
“Everyone was just running randomly – you don’t know where you go.
“When it becomes daytime you find yourself as a group of people, running in the same direction.
The sunlight exposed the horrors of the night before.
Some children found themselves surrounded by the remains of slain loved ones.
Others died on the journey to safety.
Galou said he and his companions scavenged for food and drank muddy water.
“What can you do? We just managed for us to survive,” he said.
“Sometimes on the way you find a lot of people are dying because of hunger.”
Eventually, the group crossed Sudan’s border with Ethiopia and established what would become Pinyudo refugee camp.
“At that time there was nothing in that place – it was just a bush,” Galou said.
“We cleared all the bushes and we settled under the trees.
“The majority of us passed away in that place.”
Without their parents, the children struggled to take care of themselves.
“Some were psychologically affected, some were sick. Some were just thinking back, ‘Where their parents are? Where?’” Galou said.
One night, while he was in a refugee camp, the rebels stole Galou and a number of other boys.
For the next two or three years, he served as a child soldier.
“It was not my choice – I was forced to do so,” Galou said.
“Life was so terrible. You find someone had been shot next to you.”
There was no food or water and Galou said there were often bombardments in areas the government suspected rebels were occupying.
“They killed a lot of people there,” Galou said.
He eventually escaped, back to the refugee camp, to the protection of the United Nations and Red Cross.
But life was far from stable. Civil war then erupted in Ethiopia, rendering the refugee camp unsafe.
From Ethiopia, Galou and the refugees walked back to Sudan, crossing deserts on their journey from Sudan to Kenya.
The group briefly established two other camps before settling at Kakuma.
“There was nothing in that place – no trees, nothing, not even rainfall. It was dry throughout the year,” Galou said.
“You find in the day time everywhere is dusty and very sunny.”
Trees were planted, tents erected, and rain fell again in that part of Kenya.
The UNHCR also started building schools to educate the thousands of children at the camp, and hired teachers.
Galou finished his primary education in the camp. He also went to one of its three high schools.
Classes included up to 200 students.
About 2002, Galou said Australia started offering programs for refugee children to resettle.
He applied, which involved filling out forms, explaining why he wanted to move to Australia, being interviewed, and passing a medical check.
Having been accepted, Galou arrived in Melbourne in November 2003.
By that time he had been told his parents were alive.
Galou had been planning on studying, but deferred to start working in a factory and supporting his family.
In 2006, he became an Australian citizen. One of the first things Galou did was apply for a passport.
The following year he visited Sudan to see for himself whether his family had survived.
“I find my dad and my mum and two sisters and two brothers. It was a great day for me,” Galou said.
In the years that followed, Galou had two competing interests: family, and his desire to develop qualifications.
A job lured him to central Victoria.
He lived and worked in Castlemaine for several years before moving to Bendigo in July 2015 – a more convenient location for a student at La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus.
Galou decided to study a Bachelor of Accounting.
He credits a Richard and Claire Guy Scholarship, which he won with support from the Community Foundation for Central Victoria, with enabling him to continue studying and working to support his family.
Galou used the funds to buy a computer and pay for Internet, transport and printing.
The second-year student is looking forward to completing his degree and becoming an accountant.