By GEORGIA WESTGARTH
WHEN 39-year-old youth worker, refugee and father of three Abdi Aden spoke to students at Lyndale Secondary College he was speaking to fellow refugees.
“It was fantastic to see so many different cultures,” Abdi said.
At 15 years old Abdi fled war-torn Somalia in search of safety and his family and began his two and a half year journey as a refugee.
Abdi took a chance on a people smuggler and was handed an Egyptian and Romanian passport.
“I took the risk because I had nothing to lose – the more resilient you are the more respect you gain,” he said.
Abdi walked for three months from his home in Mogadishu to a refugee camp in Kenya with 300 strangers and arrived with less than half of them.
“It was a shocking sight arriving at the refugee camp in Kenya, dust everywhere, no toilet, no lights I couldn’t even play soccer anymore, everyone told me I was crazy to walk back and that I would die but I’d rather take that risk than stay there,” Abdi said.
Abdi was the only survivor on the three-month trek home and was surprised to find 20 strangers living in his house.
“My family wasn’t there but I was lucky to find my mother’s special cupboard untouched,” Abdi said.
His mother’s stash of money, passports and birth certificates hadn’t been found by the squatters.
“It scared me to find everything in the cupboard because I knew that meant my family hadn’t returned,” he said.
Abdi walked half an hour to the airport with the shillings and his birth certificate where he met the people smuggler.
With just a T-shirt in freezing conditions in Romania Abdi lived in a UN refugee camp for one year and left for Germany at 16 where he got a tourist visa to Australia.
Abdi turned his life around after spending 12 months homeless in Victoria and started VCE at Brunswick High School, worked in a factory and attended Tafe for two years before transferring into Victoria University and later the University of Melbourne where he studied youth work.
Abdi advised the students not to stereotype other cultures.
“When I moved into a new suburb I said hello to my next door neighbour, he didn’t reply, the next day I said ‘how are you today’ and got no response, the third time he nodded his head, this went on four times until he offered me a cake and on the fifth day he wanted to give me a lawn mower,” he said.
Abdi explained that the man was just shy and that they were two very different people.
“If I had an ego we could have had a civil war next door, now we are best of friends – the way you present yourself will always come back to you,” he said.
Abdi believes all refugees would prosper more by living in areas made up of different cultures instead of forming small societies within suburbs.
“When I sponsored my mum (who was still in Africa) and nine children in Australia I took them to a working class area and her friend was telling her to move to Heidelberg West and my cousins now are doing much better with a degree and a business than the other kids.
“I told my mum to stop thinking about moving there and she said ‘but I don’t see people that look like me here’ and I said that’s a good thing.”
Year 12 student Ali Raza won a copy of Abdi’s new book Shining and said Abdi’s story struck a chord.
“I arrived two years ago by boat, I escaped persecution and killing in Pakistan,” Ali said.
“Here I am safe, I get education, a home to live and opportunity, so I see my future much brighter here if I work hard.
“I have to work hard, that’s why I wake up at six o’clock to get to school on time,” Ali said.
Abdi’s story of survival is currently available in bookstores.
