'I had nothing': South Sudanese refugee shares his story to help raise money for Sign of Hope campaign

Majok Lam settled in Edmonton in 2022 after fleeing violence in South Sudan. He now works with Catholic Social Services as an interpreter and is looking forward to enrolling in university for political science. (Dave Mitchell/CTV News Edmonton)

Majok Lam lived through two civil wars and spent his teenage years in a refugee camp before moving to Edmonton.

He's one of around 1,300 government-assisted refugees that settled in Alberta in 2022 with the help of Catholic Social Services (CSS). Now, he's using his experience to welcome others and help raise money for the services they need.

Lam spoke Friday alongside CSS representatives for the launch of the 2023 Sign of Hope campaign, which aims to raise $2.7 million before December.

"This campaign is very important for myself and other people who need help," he said.

"When I arrived in the city of Edmonton, I didn't know what to expect," Lam said. "Everything again was new and different. I don't know how to get a start in my new life.

"Luckily, I was connected to Catholic Social Services, and my whole life was changed."

'A HUMAN TRAGEDY'

Lam was born in Sudan in 1995, 12 years into the country's second civil war, which would last another 10 and kill more than two-million people.

"It was a human tragedy that divided the country on racial and religious lines," Lam said. "I grew up with a bleak future."

Hope for peace came in the form of a 2011 referendum vote to separate South Sudan from Sudan. But the freedom that followed was "short-lived," Lam said.

South Sudanese election officials count the ballots at a polling station in Juba, South Sudan, Saturday Jan 15, 2011. Results began trickling in immediately after polls closed Saturday evening. Almost everyone expects the south to vote overwhelmingly to break away from the north, cleaving one of Africa's larger nations in two. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)By 2013, violence had broken out between the new country's two largest ethnic groups.

"The country I fought for during the referendum campaign fell back into [political struggle]," he said.

Caught in the crossfighting, Lam was forced to flee.

"I had nothing. I set off for the Kenyan border in the hope of finding safety. I barely made it out of my country," he added.

Lam spent years in the Kakuma refugee camp, one of the largest in Africa. It was lonely and life was hard. When he heard his younger brother had been killed in Sudan, Lam said he almost gave up.

In this photo taken Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014, a small cross made of sticks and a religious blanket lie on top of the grave of a small child who was wounded during recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor but who died after fleeing by river barge across the Nile river to the town of Awerial, South Sudan. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)"I didn't know if I could survive the constant suffering of pain and grief," he added. "I sat alone and I told myself I better not let the grief inside me take me because life was so difficult."

To keep himself busy, he helped others. Lam volunteered as a community support worker and got a job as a primary school teacher. Studying languages in his spare time, Lam soon spoke more than five and was hired by the United Nations as an interpreter.

Soon after, he was accepted for the Refugees Resettlement Program to Canada, where he now uses his skills as a CSS interpreter, welcoming other newcomers in need of a hand.

'I WOULD NEVER HAVE THAT CHANCE'

CSS provides services to more than 22,000 people each year in central Alberta.

Money raised through this year's Sign of Hope campaign will go to the organization's many services, including immigrant and refugee support.

"I think our basic duty as human beings is to look after each other, and we know that there are many people who are coming here to Canada or who already live here in Canada, who just need that extra little bit of help," said Eoin Murray, CSS vice-president of immigration services.

The charity said fundraising is important because settlement services and other programming often go beyond what federal funding covers.

"A very good example of that is counselling," Murray said "A lot of people … are coming to Canada, and they've had extremely difficult real traumas in their life."

Lam suffered an unknown illness when he was young, which affected his bone structure and musculature. Without access to health care in Sudan, he wasn't treated or diagnosed until he arrived in Edmonton.

"The first time I went for X-ray and saw my own bones, I could not believe with my own eyes," Lam said. "I would never have that chance in my country."

In addition to medical, language and housing support, Murray said CSS helps newcomers with employment assistance, cultural education and other skills needed to succeed in their new lives.

"How to use a library; cooking lessons; how to wear ten layers of clothes during winter time," Lam added. "I get a wheelchair. I get set up to go to school and have my cooking classes – which, I never know how to cook.

"You can have food, yet [if] you don't know how to cook you cannot eat."

In 2022, the Sign of Hope Campaign raised $3.2 million.