Today on Listen Up: Collision on the immigration highway. When
immigrants and their new country get the best from each other …
Today
we want to show you a remarkable story of what can be possible when
people cross cultural barriers in immigration and get to know each
other. We’ll explore that today and bring a story of Canadians helping
refugees from Sudan return to their troubled homeland. A journey of
potential lost, and found.
But first, this year, Canada will
welcome more than a quarter million new residents through immigration.
That’s more than last year. Higher targets and higher demands for
professionally educated people because immigration is a cornerstone of
nation building for Canada. In this season of our country’s growth,
immigration is how the government handles labor shortages caused by our
aging population.
Yonge Street in multi ethnic Toronto -
Canada’s largest city. More than half its population was born outside
Canada. 40 % of the population here has a mother tongue that’s not
English. A nearby church has over 90 languages in its congregation
But
is Canada wasting its foreign treasure? A new study from Montreal’s
Institute for Research on Public Policy estimates inadequate
recognition of immigrant credentials costs the Canadian economy up to
$5 billion a year.
Jean Marc is the kind of principal any parent wishes for their
child. But it was the special needs of French speaking students
whose parents are refugees that pulled him out of early retirement and
put him back in the classroom to spread his philosophy.
MOHAMMED YUSUF
Program Coordinator, Global Friendship Immigration Centre
2nd Floor, 120 - 1st Avenue East
Brooks, AB T1R 1C5
Telephone: 403-362-6115
“God
wanted us to come back to help people in need - Sudan is a region that
is suffering – suffering a lot. For 22 years of war, the
health care system is almost…it’s not there. And
people are in desperate need of medical services. I think God
wanted us to do this mission – to complete this mission –
to help those people in need. We are here in Kenya, here in
medical facilities for missions, so our training here in Kenya has been
facilitated for people that have faith – Christian - same as our
friends that help us in Canada – they also…they have faith
and we know that they want us to do this Job, and God also has been
helping them to help us in this process. So I think that the
purpose of God is there, and it will be there with us.”
Thrilled to have completed his upgrading at the U. of Calgary, and now
in the second phase of his retraining program at Samaritan
Purse’s Kenyan hospital, Dr. Michael Tut Pur reflects on his
father’s words as he was sent into exile….
“My father gave me the
Bible and told me that it was going to ‘be your father and it is
going to be your mother’ I find that interesting, because the
Bible has become that for me. During that time I couldn’t
have communications with my parents, so it became the only instrument
for me to encourage myself. If there was emotional change or any
problems, I always look at the Bible I carried – at
Matthew.”
“It is
not about our power, but it is about the Kingdom of God that is working
through our hearts in order to come back to Africa and make a
difference. I think that should a purpose in your life, asking
the question “what I’m here for”, and we should make
a difference in a certain way for our people or whether for any other
person in our life. I think God is working in our hearts.”
“They realized their work had been done with the help of God.” (Nehemiah 6:15)
Eleven Sudanese-Canadians who spent nine months studying at the
University of Calgary’s medical school, through a unique
medical/spiritual training program funded by Samaritan’s Purse
– Canada, were welcomed home as national heroes when they
returned to Sudan in late 2006 for the first time in more than 20 years.
(Watch CBC Coverage Their enthusiastic reception included a private
meeting with South Sudan’s president, and formal state dinners
hosted by the Ministry of Health and by the Secretary General.)
“My dear sons and daughters, I welcome you wholeheartedly,”
said President Salva Kiir Mayardit, during an hour-long meeting at his
government’s headquarters in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
“We congratulate you for the great mission you have accomplished.
It will go down in history. I also congratulate Samaritan’s Purse
and all who helped in your education.”
The mission and journey
The 11 physicians were part of a group of 600 Sudanese young people
transported out of South Sudan in the 1980s, during a brutal 21-year
civil war that finally ended last year. Their government arranged for
their exile so they could perform a very special mission: survive the
war, obtain educations abroad, and return to help lead their troubled
country.
The young Sudanese were sent from neighbouring Ethiopia to Cuba. There,
they received high school and post-secondary educations, including
medical studies for some of them.
“It will go down in history.” President Salva Kiir Mayardit
Upon graduation, they were unable to return to Sudan due to the ongoing
war. Many entered Canada as refugees. Because their training was
inadequate by Canadian standards, they obtained jobs in fields
unrelated to their post-secondary education.
Daniel Madit Thon Duop, part of the group that studied medicine in Cuba
and made their way to Canada, approached Samaritan’s Purse in
2005. He asked for help in completing his original mission –
going back to South Sudan to help rebuild. Samaritan’s Purse
investigated, and found 14 more Sudanese Canadians who had studied
medicine in Cuba and wanted to return to Sudan.
None of the 15 had studied or practiced medicine for years. And so
Samaritan’s Purse formed a partnership with the University of
Calgary’s medical school to offer refresher and upgrading
courses. Samaritan’s Purse also offered Christian guidance and
training.
Happy to be home
The University of Calgary training (made possible by 77 faculty members
generously donating their time to the program) ended in September 2006.
The second phase of the physicians’ training began in November
2006, when they began year-long assignments arranged by
Samaritan’s Purse at teaching hospitals in and around Nairobi,
Kenya.
Before their training in Kenya, Samaritan’s Purse arranged for
the doctors to return to South Sudan for brief reunions with their
families and old friends – people they hadn’t seen in more
than two decades.
The group flew into Juba airport in early October, under blazing 37C
sunshine, and were met by a throng of reporters and photographers eager
to learn more about their inspiring Africa-to-Cuba-to-Canada-to-Africa
odyssey.
“We will have to make everything from nothing.” Michael Tut Pur
“This is a great moment for us,” said Thon Duop, tears
streaming down his cheeks after he knelt on the airport runway and
briefly offered a prayer of thanks for being back in South Sudan.
“I am so happy to be home and so thankful for the people who have
helped me to be here.” Read about Daniel Thon Duop
At a government reception later that day, Health Minister Theophilus
Chang Letti told the physicians: “You are a gift from heaven that
gives us courage. You are going to join us in a battle against diseases
and in a war against death. Our thank-you is profound.”
Chang Letti warned the physicians that they will face enormous
challenges. Twenty one years of civil war have destroyed much of South
Sudan’s infrastructure, including most of its medical system.
Nine million people in South Sudan are served by 36 physicians. By
comparison, nine million people in Canada are served by 15,000
physicians.
“We are in dire need of medical doctors,” Chang Letti said.
There are also only a handful of functioning hospitals in all of South
Sudan. They include the Samaritan’s Purse-operated hospital at
Lui. The Sudanese-Canadian physicians toured two hospitals in Juba. The
facilities are extremely primitive by Canadian standards – very
little medical equipment or supplies, far too crowded, and with limited
access to electricity (and thus no air conditioning despite the extreme
heat).
Visibly shocked
The physicians were visibly shocked by what they saw. But none appeared
to have any second thoughts about his or her decision to abandon the
comforts of Canada to return home to what was, until very recently, a
war zone.
“This place – we can change it. We can improve it,”
physician Okoni Simon Mori told South Sudan government dignitaries
during a state dinner. “We’re not going to run.”
Their collective resolve became very clear in the final hours before
their two-day visit to Juba came to an end. Nine of the 11 accepted an
invitation from the South Sudan government to stay in Juba for a few
days to help at the hospitals they visited. Each of the nine is
receiving food and accommodations, plus a temporary salary.
The two physicians who returned immediately to Nairobi, Michael Tut Pur
and Benjamin Jok Mach, did so because they were eager to see family
members there. In Tut Pur’s case, that includes a fiancé
whom he plans to marry in late 2006.
“I will be back in South Sudan soon,” vowed Tut Pur, who
plans to return and establish a medical clinic in the town near the
Ethiopian border where he grew up. “Life there will be very
difficult for us,” he predicted. “We have been living in
the West for 20 years. Here, we have no real system or infrastructure.
We will have to make everything from nothing.” Read about Michael
Tut Pur
Tut Pur compared the physicians’ journey to that of Nehemiah who
left a life of affluence and returned to his Jewish homeland to
successfully rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that were destroyed by war:
“God was with Nehemiah, and He will be with us in all of
this.”
The Samaritan’s Purse-funded Sudanese physicians program,
including the 12-month-long hospital training phase in Kenya, will cost
about $1.1 million, of which about $250,000 must still be provided.
PETER BOTHA
Representative with the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement
Canadian-Made Refugee Awareness Campaign Aims to Shock! www.unhcr.ca
Today Listen Up TV explored the world of being a
good neighbour to refugees and immigrants that live among us. As
always, our point of view tries to listen to how God would inform this
issue in our culture. The book of God, the Bible says we are required
to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.”
(Micah 6:8) That is what informs relationships engaged with
immigration. That’s what informs our passion to be peace makers in
Sudan.
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On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
