By Caroline Smith
Faith has often served as a source of hope for people during dark times and extreme circumstances, and this is certainly a theme in the story of Philip Lako, who came to Perth as a refugee after many years of hardship and abuse as a child soldier in South Sudan.
Born in a village north of the capital Juba, Mr Lako was taken at the age of ten – along with many other boys – by the South Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), under the guise of providing them with an education.
“They took us to a town called Torit which is about 250 km east of Juba, the capital city of South Sudan. We were taken there by road train and a few boys became extremely unwell because of the appalling conditions,” he said.
It was 1990, and Sudan was still one country and in the midst of civil war, so the boys were brought to a Catholic mission for safety in Torit.
South Sudan would go on to secede from Sudan after a referendum and declare itself independent in 2011.
The group had arrived with their teachers, leaving the boys and the SPLA leaders, who immediately regimented their daily activities, exacting harsh punishments for any misstep.
However, the boys faced much greater hardships the following year, when they moved to the town of Polataka, where they were forced to take part in construction work for the army, who were ‘teachers’ at the same time.
“I think that was the beginning of the real suffering for us,” Mr Lako said.
“We had to learn to live with the understanding that any mistake you made, you could die. We had to live with the sense that if you wake up today, you’d be thinking, ‘so I’m alive today’.
“We would sleep on the floor with only linen, hessian bags and would often be woken involuntarily at 3am by being beaten harshly by the military police.
“And with barely no clothing, we would be shivering uncontrollably during assembly.”
Mr Lako went on to explain that a general assembly would be often be called and boys presenting fit and able to hold a rifle – thus able to fight in war – would be tested and subsequently disappear, having being taken by the army.
This happened to Mr Lako at the age of 13, but due to an injury, he was deemed too vulnerable.
Throughout these hardships and constant insecurity from the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan Rebel Movement also terrorising people in Sudan, Mr Lako said he found solace in two things: the support of a French doctor, named Dr Ostrowski and a Catholic priest, named Fr Gerry, together with his burgeoning Christian faith, which saw him baptised into the Catholic Church in 1992.
As well as providing him with the strength to face each day, Mr Lako says his faith helped him escape from captivity, after being moved to a displaced people’s camp. It was 1999, and the army had selected him for screening.
“There was a priest who tried to get me out, and said that he’d take me to study in a seminary in Uganda, but it was too late,” he said.
“It was one week away from us getting arms and actually going to fight.
“I managed to escape, and I think it was all the work of God.
“I would not have managed to do anything without the help of God.”
Mr Lako crossed the border into Kenya in August 2000, and registered at the Kakuma refugee camp, where he sensed despair among the 800,000 people living there.
“I realised that there was a complete despair among the people – the real meaning of losing hope is when you’re at a refugee camp, and you’ve tried all you can, and this is it, it’s going to end like this, the prospect of getting resettled is almost impossible.”
However, an opportunity for resettlement appeared for Mr Lako when a family he befriended at the camp came under threat from people back in South Sudan, and the authorities decided to move them, and those in their social circle, to another location.
“A case was opened on the fact that these people (from South Sudan) could come at any time, at night, and take this lady’s children, and harm everybody who is known to her or her husband.”
So in September 2002, the group was flown to a refugee camp in Dadaab, North Eastern Kenya, where Mr Lako continued his schooling. Two years later, the UNHCR decided to move him permanently to Australia.
Reflecting on his earliest impressions of the new country, Mr Lako suggested that refugees often become involved in caring professions such as nursing, aged care or social work, to show generosity to the people who have welcomed them.
“When I woke up the first morning, I cried terribly. I wondered why these people had helped me – for someone who is not even related to you, or who comes from a different country to help you that much, was something I could not understand that morning,” he said.
“And this is why refugees are very grateful for what has been done for them – they want to pay back that gratitude.”
Mr Lako himself has worked in this field, as well as being a safety officer in the mining industry, and he is currently studying full time for a Bachelor of Health Science with a Double Major in Occupational Health and Safety and Health Promotion.
He also volunteers with MercyCare, teaching English, assisting in facilitation of safety induction and providing other support to refugees. For this work, he was awarded a certificate of recognition for upholding the agency’s organisational values.
From pages 8 and 9 from Issue 5: ‘Christmas 2016 – Looking forward to the Birth of Christ & Reflecting back on the Year 2016?’ of The Record Magazine