David Ayual Mayom is a refugee from south Sudan, Africa.
Mayom waits for the day he graduates in order to go home and help his family. Mayom
is a second year graduate student in the International and Development
Economics Program. Currently 30 years old and living on a visa scholarship in
order to complete his education. For four years he worked as the Program
Advisor to the Sons of Sudan Foundation, an organization serving the Lost Boys
of Sudan in Washington. “Since 1983, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)
and the Sudanese Government have been at war in southern Sudan” (Unicef). “More
than 500,000 lives and displaced people were counted. Among these were at least
20,000 children, mostly boys, between 7 and 17 years of age who were separated
from their families. These ‘lost boys’ of the Sudan trekked enormous distances
over a vast unforgiving wilderness, seeking refuge from the fighting. Hungry,
frightened and weakened by sleepless and disease, they crossed from Sudan into
Ethiopia and back, with many dying along the way. The survivors are now in
camps in Kenya, the Sudan, and Uganda” (Unicef). Mayom is a leader in the
Sudanese refugee community, having arrived in the United States in 2001. He
speaks Dinka and Kiswahili, and researches the impact of foreign direct
investment on unemployment and economic growth. At 7 he was separated from his
family living in poverty in an orphanage doing chores. Later at the age of 13
he was sent to fight in war. Serving for only a year he was taken out at the
age of 14 and moved to Kenya’s camps (Kokoma). A United Nations program took
refugee groups “Lost Boys in Sudan,” in order to give them an opportunity to
escape war. Upon coming to the U.S. in 2001, he had to get accustomed to it, “Big
Change,” he states. At first glance Mayom was really tall, and had a green
strip shirt on and was very nice and sweet. He wanted us to be secluded for the
interview so we moved to the couches near the bathroom on the third floor at
K-Hall. As we sat down he was ready for answering every question. Mayom
explained that, “during 2001 to 2007 he was working and going to community
college in order to transfer to a university in Seattle Washington. In 2012 he
graduated from Wazoo University in Washington and earned his Bachelors degree.”
In August 2012 he had moved to San Francisco to attend the Masters Program at
USF (graduating May 2015). I asked why he had moved here he explained, “that he
had no choice the Sudan government was at war and he needed to escape. He moved
to the U.S. with his younger Brother (did not want to mention a name) who
stayed in Washington as he moved to San Francisco. In Kenya live his poor
mother and 6 siblings, he said that, “Before, they would take the women from
the families and sell them into slavery.” His family luckily was rescued and
was taken to the camps in Kenya where they stay now. All alone here in San
Francisco he turned to education to be his top priority, he does miss his
family and his friends but he knows that if he gets his education he can help save
other refugees in Sudan by working with the government. He visits Kenya once in
a while and his family sometimes visits too, but struggles to pass the papers
and ends up not being able to travel. The first time he tried to bring his
family over, it was unsuccessful the government turned him down, stating that
the claim was lost or was never made. For everything Mayom has gone through he
still manages with a big smile on his face to say, “What doesn’t kill you makes
you stronger,” and “I will work hard and will help my family.” He ended by
thanking God and the United States for giving him the opportunity to make a
difference. David Mayom’s final words “I was one of the smart students.” I
giggled as I got up to give a hug as the conversation came to an end, and thank
him for taking his time to talk to me. The last thing as I gather my belonging
was that he asked me for my number, at first I was shocked but eventually I had
to turn him down, because I had been already taken. He smiles and walks away
disappointed as if hoping I was available.
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