The tough journey led osman success and achieve dreams
He was living in Mogadishu where the last 30 years of conflict caused death and destruction. The boy is called Osman. He completed his secondary school in 2014. His father had a small shop in front of the house to cover basic needs of the family. Due to the fact of being part of a minority tribe, the father was threatened by majority tribes to be executed. Osman’s father’s house is located in the town and it could cost a lot of money. Because of that, the majority tribe asked Osman’s father to abandon the house and if he insisted the result would be death. His father insisted believing what those who threatened him said that it could be a joke.
On the other hand, Osman’s mother left to visit her mother who lived in another province not far from Mogadishu. Weeks later, those who threatened Osman’s father attacked them by attaching explosion devices in the house. Around 5 to 6pm, the explosion ignited and caused the death of Osman’s father and other siblings.
Luckily, Osman went to play football at the ground nearby. “A young boy called Nor who was a neighbor of Osman” saw the explosion of the house and ran to the ground to inform Osman what happened to his family”. Osman ran to the house to see what really occurred and half way to his house, a friend of his father who knew the incident told Osman don’t go please, otherwise you will be eliminated too and kept in a safehouse nearby. The friend of Osman’s father, whose name might not be true is Mohamed, told Osman that he should run because those who persecuted his family are after him.
Osman took the advice and received some money to get transport to Kismayo, also 500 kilometers far from Mogadishu. He did not know anyone in Kismayo, but due to fear and shock, Osman continued his journey to Kenya which is a neighboring country to Somalia. Kenya signed the Geneva convention and every refugee from neighboring countries such as Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia. Kenya shares borders with Somalia, Ethiopia and Tanzania and for that reason Kenya hosts different refugees from those countries and beyond. Therefore, Kenya hosted an uncountable number of refugees from Somalia and Osman arrived at a refugee camp called “IFO”.
He could not remain in the camp due to horror and anxiety that he experienced throughout the journey. He sometimes remembers beautiful days with his family and bad days throughout his journey and the killings of his family bothered extremely psychologically and emotionally. Thus, he continued his journey to Tanzania by lorry that transports goods from Kenya to Tanzania. Osman did not have enough money, but he used the money given by Mohamed who was a guy he met in Tanzania and made him manage well and enabled him to arrive in the capital city of Tanzania. Osman was hiding under the goods whether the lorry approached checkpoints throughout his voyage and arrived at Dar salaam safely.
Osman asked the lorry’s driver to find a place where the Somali community stays in Dar salaam, the driver was kind enough to support the young boy seeing the anxiety and stress that on his face, by calling taxi motor-bike to take Osman to the Somali community in Dar salaam which 2 blocks away. When Osman saw the first Somali person, he cried emotionally thinking that he was dreaming because to him, seeing a Somali person was impossible.
The Somalian guy was a shopkeeper selling clothes and saw the young boy’s struggle physically and took him to his house by giving him food, a place to take a shower and a bed to sleep. Osman slept one day and half due to fatigue and stress that impacted emotionally as well as physically. The second evening, the Somali guy whose name was Omar invited Osman to the launch table with his fellow businessmen asking about his situation. The innocent boy counted about his journey from Mogadishu to Dar salaam by asking for help that he wanted to reach to South Africa to save his life. The Somali people who are doing business in Tanzania were generous to Osman and contributed $800 to continue his travel to South Africa. Mohamed gave guidance on the road and talked to a certain track driver that he knew from Dar Salam to Maputo which is the capital city of Mozambique. Osman faced multiple challenges throughout his journey to Maputo and was arrested and released after paying some money. He eventually reached Maputo safely without any problems and continued his journey to South Africa with an amount of money remaining in his pocket.
Osman got arrested on the 7th day of his journey to South Africa while crossing the border and he was later given 14 days’ document to surrender to the home affairs office in any city of south Africa. This document would help him to travel from the border to Cape Town, so throughout his journey police and immigration officers on the road would not arrest him.
Osman had some relatives in Cape town, where he asked people about their tribes and their names which he eventually got. Those members gave him a place to relax, eat and change the clothes, which he eventually asked them for a place to study. In addition to that, he spent almost a month getting documented and understanding the environment. After that, he wanted to chase his dream and continue his education, because he knew that only work would not let him achieve his dreams. However, he started asking questions to his relatives about if there is a refugee camp in south africa or not? In addition to that, those relatives told him that there is a refugee camp and you can get education.
Osman was eventually enrolled in an intensive English course for six months and after he completed, he enrolled in a diploma offered by Regis university online learning program. Afterwards, he was enrolled as an associate of art in business studies at Southern New Hampshire university and completed. In addition, he furthered his studies by enrolling in a bachelor’s degree in management which he eventually completed. After completing his BA, he searched for work and later on got from a certain company in Cape Town called BM logistics and his first salary was 30,000 Ran which was enough salary.
Osman contacted his mother by sending money every month for 7000 Ran and later married to his dream wife. He got to know his wife from social media (facebook) and had a relationship for almost 6 months and they agreed to marry each other. Somali culture is; a husband should talk to the family of the lady, specifically the father of the lady and ask consent to marry which eventually happened.
Now, Osman is a father of 2 kids, and pursuing master’s degree in international law at University of Johannesburg so that in the future, he will bring justice to those who brutally killed innocent people in Somalia including Osman’s own family. This tough journey led Osman to success and achieve his dreams by completing a university degree and getting a dream job. Osman has gone through obstacles and trauma that caused him to leave his home country due to excessive conflict that led his family to die and go through a challenging voyage. However, Osman did not give up in his life but due to resistance and endurance of all these challenges, he eventually became successful in life and achieved life that he did not expect. This means no matter how difficult life is, success might show up one day.
21 January, 2023
