Matter Muchar came to Australia as a refugee in 2002, under a project to resettle the ‘lost boys’ of Sudan. These survivors of group of 20,000 children displaced or orphaned by civil war in Sudan, many forced to become child soldiers, had trekked thousands of kilometres across hostile country in their attempts to find safety. Matter was one of only 12,000 to ultimately reach Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya, in 1992.
When he arrived in Australia, with two other young men, he was overwhelmed.
…meeting so many people, coming to a new country where there are so many things that didn’t exist in the camp, from running water and all these electrical operated machines, so many cars, tall buildings… using money, trying to operate an ATM machine and going to the beach which I’ve never seen before.
Matter is now a teacher and has a young family. He reflects:
… the fact that I have grown up without a parent has given me a strong feeling to ensure that I do whatever I can to be a parent… I have never had anyone call me their child it has given me a sense of responsibility, a sense of belonging.
Charles Anderson was born in 1897 in South Africa to a British father and Belgian mother, but raised on their farm in Kenya. He served with the King’s African Rifles during the First World War.
