This is the story of Adzo Elizabeth Koudakpo. We asked her if she would share her story and the following are her words:

Hi, my name is Adzo Elizabeth Koudakpo and I want to tell you a story about my life as a refugee. I come from Togo, in the West of Africa, but because of the war in Togo, in 1993 my parents had to run away from our country. My father and uncle ran away on one day, and then my mother and my elder sister Lucia escaped on a different day. They met up in the country of Ghana, also in West Africa and entered a refugee camp there. My family lived there for many years, and they had to move to another refugee camp, also in Ghana. I, my younger sister Justine and our three younger brothers and sisters were all born and have spent our whole lives in the refugee camps before coming to Australia.

It was very difficult in the camps. There was not enough food. Our parents had to work very hard to look after us. My father did volunteer work for the Red Cross, helping to distribute water. The camp was a very dangerous place, and we were unprotected. Also my elder sister had to walk very far out of the camp to go to high school and we were scared every day for her because at certain times there were killings and the killers would take your head or blood to get money.

Nothing happened to help us find somewhere to live. Because we were not safe, and we felt useless staying so long in the camp, we decided to try and leave Ghana ourselves and find another country where we could get re-settlement and find somewhere to call home. We left the camp with some others, but when we got to the border of Ghana it was locked and there were many soldiers. We had travelled very far so we couldn’t go back. We lived on the streets for 3 days and then the police came and started to beat us with their guns and heavy sticks. Then they brought a big bus and pushed us into it and carried us back to the camp where more soldiers arrived. Everybody was very scared, some ran away to hide in the bush, I, and my sisters did not know where our parents were and hid under the beds until the soldiers went away.

Finally we were offered re-settlement. It still took 2 years before we could come to Australia-it took that long to get everything ready. When I arrived in Australia I was very happy. Often, though my memories make me sad. Australia is a nice place for refugees and now I have found a place to call home!

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Nexus Project would like to thank Elizabeth very much for letting us to share her story. If you would like to share your own story with Nexus then please contact us at info@nexusproject.net.au