In 2001 Abuk and her family were in Aweil Town when the militia attacked. Abuk’s husband was killed, Abuk was shot, and the family scattered. A daughter, Juer, came to Australia and settled into my congregation with her daughters. Juer was in contact with some of her sisters and brothers, but she didn’t know what happened to her mother or her 4 younger siblings. She assumed her mother had been killed. Finally she found her younger siblings in an orphanage in Aweil under the care of the Catholic Church. We supported her application to bring them to Australia on a Family Orphan Visa. The older girl went missing in Khartoum but we welcomed the younger 3 to Australia about 2 years ago and they have become part of our church family.
A few months later I came with Joseph to Aweil and there we discovered that Juer’s mother Abuk was living in Khartoum, North Sudan. I rang Juer and passed on the news. Last year another daughter was able to bring her back to Aweil. But there is no news of the lost daughter.
When I greeted Abuk I told her we thought she was dead. I passed on greetings from her children, told her how well they are doing in Australia and showed some photos from my computer. Abuk of course was overjoyed to see the pictures and hear the news. But there was no hiding the pain. We see a lot of anguish here, but Joseph and I couldn’t hold back our tears. This family’s story is typical of what many South Sudanese have endured. We pray one day they can be reunited.
With Veronica Abuk and her daughter
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