17th August, 2012

DAVID ADAMS

The Boy Who Wouldn't Die

David Nyuol Vincent with Carol Nader

Fairfax Books, an imprint of Allen & Unwin, Sydney, Australia, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1743310250

Told in plain and easy-to-read English, this is a powerful story and one that is guaranteed to stir you up over the plight of the millions who still face such hardships.

David Nyoul Vincent was just eight-years-old when war came to his village in southern Sudan and he and his father fled, undertaking a dangerous journey across the Sahara Desert to a refugee camp across the Ethiopian border. He left behind his mother, sisters and the life he had known.

David was to spend the next 17 years surviving, mostly without the aid of any relatives, in refugee camps in Ethiopia – where he was trained as a child soldier although spared from fighting on the front line – as well as Kenya before he was finally one of the chosen ones and allowed to come to Australia on a humanitarian visa.

But once here, he struggled to come to terms with his past as he tried to build a future for himself and for the people he loved still living in the camps and Sudan.

The book, written with the aid of journalist Carol Nader, frequently touches on the important role sport, in particular, soccer, played in David’s life as an escape when even in the direst of circumstances as well as his faith as a Christian which, needless to say, was severely tested by the trials he has faced.

In fact, struggling with his past and new life in Australia, it was after attending a course called Life Matters – which he found about through the National Council of Churches – that David encountered a real turning point in his life and in his words, “began to look at things differently”. It was after that he and others founded Sudanese Youth for Reconciliation and Hope which worked to bring people from the north and south of the country together in peace.

Told in plain and easy-to-read English, this is a powerful story and one that is guaranteed to stir you up over the plight of the millions who still face such hardships. Faced with circumstances that might crush others, David survived, however, and unable to simply leave behind his past, he made it his life’s mission to help improve the lives of all those he left behind.

David's story is inspiring but it also reveals the many people alongside him whose stories did not have such happy endings. Tough reading at times, it’s a book that will help open your eyes to the alternate reality being lived by so many.

Follow the link to buy this book - The Boy Who Wouldn't Die.

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