This week’s ‘Everyday Hero’ — Canadians who make a difference, but are too modest to sing their own praises — is a new Canadian who knows the struggles of life all too well, and makes an effort to help the next generation of children struggling with similar experiences.
BURNABY, B.C. – William Kolong Pioth knows the struggle of life all too well, so it’s easy for him to identify with the newcomers, as his own journey to Canada has followed a similar script.
At the age of nine, in the midst of Sudan’s bloody civil war, Pioth was forced to leave his family and walk for nearly three months through 1,000 kilometres of desert – known as “The Long March” – to seek refuge in Ethiopia.
Along the way, he watched many of his friends, the so-called “Lost Boys of Sudan,” die.
“I took my clothes off and walked naked,” Pioth remembers. “There were people killing boys just for their clothes.”
He arrived in Ethiopia only to see war breaking out there, forcing him to flee once again. For two more months, Pioth trekked through African wilderness to reach the harsh Kakuma refugee camp in the semi-arid northern corner of Kenya.
Growing up in the refugee camp, Pioth was finally accepted for resettlement in Canada at the age of 22. He arrived in B.C. on July 21, 1998 in debt to the Canadian government for his one-way ticket from Kenya to B.C.
At the time of his arrival, there were only a dozen Sudanese refugees in the province. They took the tall, confident young man in, guiding him to his first job and a new home.
Today, Pioth does the same for all Sudanese who have subsequently arrived in the region – many of whom face difficulties and struggles in starting a new life.
They depend on him for the most basic lessons: how to flush a toilet, turn on the TV, and use a stove.
But beyond these simple lessons of adaption, Pioth has taken on an additional role: His computer contains the names of more than 300 families, many of whom he calls every Friday to see which of their children are struggling at school.
On weekends, he holds a homework club, recruiting students from B.C. universities to help tutor students in the basement of a Burnaby church.
His motivation is simple: Throughout his harsh upbringing, Pioth has always had education from aid-workers and adults who would fill the minds of young refugees – something he is trying to impress upon young Sudanese minds arriving in Canada.
“I look at it as me giving back to my community,” said Pioth. “Probably, I am giving back to the world.”
Once a “˜Lost Boy,” William Pioth isn’t lost anymore, having found a new life and a new mission in Canada. And for that reason, he is this week’s Everyday Hero.
The ‘Homework Club’ is always in need of donations for supplies. If you would like to help, email the Homework Club at ssabc@googlegroups.com
Update: William Pioth has returned to Canada on June 7, 2007, after his first visit to Sudan in 22 years, where he was able to locate his mother and father, whom he was separated from when he was just nine-years-old.
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