Tales of a Child Soldier

Like many others in Australia who are concerned about the plight of refugees I was happy to read that the town of Toowoomba welcomed the very first family to arrive from Sudan with open arms.

I could only imagine at the difficulty they had adjusting to life in Australia, but hoped they would find new peaceful lives here.

But we have all come to learn that the scars and trauma from growing up in a war torn country can follow people to their new land, and some have difficulty coping with this.

As Ayik Chut says himself in this interview, he was fine for the first year here and then things began to unravel for him as the horrors of his time as a child soldier in the Sudanese Army began to catch up with him. He covers a little in this interview of what transpired but the most amazing part of his story we didn’t get to in the interview- that of his career in film and TV! Ayik has worked alongside stars such as Chris Hemsworth and Idris Elba, and appeared in a number of TV series such as ‘Safe Harbour’ . He is now the father of two children and a proud Australian.

Ayik Chut Deng – Interview

Due to restrictions on close contact and travel, all our interviews are being conducted over the phone at the moment. Apologies for any drop in audio quality!

next week..

Fun games to play for all the family with ‘Parlour Games for Modern Families’ by Myfanwy Jones and Spiri Tsintziras.