REFUGEES FIND PEACE

TOWNSVILLE meatworker Diing Yol was eight years old when he was separated from his family as they fled a militia attack on their Sudanese village.

He survived two years alone in the bush and he would be in his 20s and living in North Queensland before he saw his mother again.

“A lot of kids lost their lives because of hunger because there was no food, no water,” Diing says of those lonely and traumatic two years in the South Sudanese bush.

The 34- year- old and his wife, Nyajur Chol, live at Bohle Plains with their children Ezekiel, 6, Ring, 5, ( pictured) and Angelina, 3.

He has a job he loves, as a boner at the JBS meatworks at Stuart.

“I’ve been there for 12 years now. The people are very friendly, the supervisors are good,” he says.

“I really love Townsville and that’s why I never think about any day I will not be in Townsville.”

Diing is one of five refugees who share their stories in tomorrow’s Townsville Eye ahead of Tuesday’s launch of Heartache, Strength & Hope, a book written by Ian Frazer and Madilyn Beplate about refugees who have settled in the North.

Townsville Multicultural Support Group will launch the book at its Refugee Week breakfast at The Ville to celebrate the organisation’s 25 years of resettling migrants and refugees.