.
(Unsettling music)
(Music fades softly.)
(Gently animated music)
I was very young when my mom left me. I was three and a half.
(Sombre music)
I don't know why she left me.
People trying to kill her or something.
People from the church that we used to go to took care of me.
And they brought me up.
I just learnt to be my own mother, my own father.
I thought that I had no father or a mother.
And I knew that she was out there somewhere for me.
Like, you would have, like, about 30 children
eating from one plate.
And it's a really big plate, but ...
you only have, like, a small amount of food,
enough to feed, like, one person.
And, um ... like ...
I didn't have anything to eat for about a week.
The only thing that I survived on was water.
And that water wasn't really clean.
It had, like, snails and all this dirty stuff right inside it.
But you had no choice but to drink it.
Like, you would watch other kids, you know,
walk past you, they'd laugh at you.
And they're saying, "Oh yeah, you're dumb."
When other people are playing, I'd just be sitting there by myself,
reading my book or just sitting there crying
and looking at others.
(Sad music)
Um ... I left the orphanage.
And then I got put in this big, massive, dark lorry.
With, like, about 200 other people.
And they started driving me away.
But because I was the little one, I was, like, right at the ...
end of ... close to the door.
And then I saw this lady. She had no shoes.
All she was wearing was a pair of jogging bottoms
and, like, a t-shirt.
She was running, and she was screaming my name.
So I looked at her, thought, "I remember that face."
That was my mom.
I started crying.
And ... I know it might sound really strange,
but I don't know where I got the power,
but I jumped from the back of the lorry onto her.
And then me and her started holding each other, screaming.
I could not believe it was real.
And from that point on, everything turned around in my life.
(Soft music)
My mom, she went to the British Embassy.
And then the people at the end ended up giving me a visa,
and we boarded the plane, and we arrived in Heathrow.
My first day at school, it was really tough.
I mumbled, like, a lot,
because I was afraid to speak to people.
And I often got anxious and got panic attacks.
(Uneasy music)
There comes a time where I'm just sitting there in class.
I don't even understand what's going on.
There's this click in the back of my mind
that says, "What if I get home, and my mom is not there?"
And, like, that's the moment where my heart starts pumping really fast.
I start breathing really fast.
And then, before you know it, I just pass out.
In school, they have created this ... special group.
Like, whenever I'm feeling angry, sad or anxious, I just go there.
And there'll always be someone that I can talk to.
Who I could tell what's going on.
And they would try to fix it, like, as much as possible.
And I'm really improving, like, on my socialising skills.
But, you know, I'm a fighter, and I'm a survivor.
No matter how much you go through, and no matter how much you suffer ...
you're always going to be accepted for who you are.
And one day you are going to be, like, this shining star.
(Soft music)
And, like, at the end of every dark tunnel, there's always a rainbow.
(Soft music)
(Music fades.)
SWR 2020