Synopses & Reviews
The inspiring story of David Nyuol Vincent, a Sudanese refugee who survived famine, wars, and 15 years in camps to find a new life in Australia David Nyuol Vincent was a little boy when he fled southern Sudan with his father as war raged in their country. He left behind his distraught mother and sisters, his village, and his childhood, and he would never return. For months David and his father walked across southern Sudan, barefoot, desperately searching for safety, food, and water. They survived the perilous Sahara Desert crossing into Ethiopia only to be separated and for David to be trained as a child soldier and then to survive the next 17 years of his life alone in refugee camps. Life in the camps was a relentless struggle against starvation, air bombings, and people determined to kill him and his people. In 2004 David was offered a Humanitarian Visa as one of the Lost Boys and was resettled to Australia. Traumatized by what he had seen and endured, he went about the slow and painful process of making a new life for himself—a life away from hunger, guns, and death, in which David is determined to improve the plight of his people both in Australia and back in the Sudan. Told with frankness and humor, this is the powerful account of a resilient young man who refused to die.
About the Author
Carol Nader is an award winning journalist who worked for The Age for over fifteen years. She is a former health editor and social policy editor. She has written extensively on child protection and family law, the health system, abortion law reform, IVF laws, gay rights, mental health, and medical research. In 2010, she won a Victorian Law Foundation award for a series of stories on child protection. Other awards include the National Health and Medical Research, Council Health Research in the Media Award, as part of the Research Australia "Thank You" Day Awards in 2007, and a National Press Club Excellence in Health Journalism award in 2006 for best article on health policy. David Nyuol Vincent is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He was trained, at the age of 5, as a child soldier in Ethiopia and lived as a refugee in Kenya until he was resettled in Australia when he was twenty-one. Since rebuilding his life here in Australia, David has become an advocate for the Sudanese community.