EPISODE 130 — Searching for Home

Note: Due to extenuating circumstances, we have had to delay the posting of this docuseries on our web show. We will be sure to update these show notes once the series is released.

On this episode, our correspondent Oumar Salifou speaks with Dr. Mawien Akot, from Edmonton’s the South Sudanese community.

In the fall of 2020, ECF was approached by leaders from Alberta’s South Sudanese community. At the time, more than a dozen South Sudanese Albertans had died from a range of causes exacerbated by the start of the pandemic.

Families were forced to sell their homes to pay for proper funerals for their loved ones. ECF was able to provide financial support to help with burial costs in 2020, however, the number of deaths has since risen to around 30.

As we looked into the underlying causes of these deaths, it was imperative that we work with the families to help tell their stories.

These stories speak to larger issues that have had broad impacts for more than 15 thousand South Sudanese people in Alberta and for everyone in this province.

On September 6th we will release South Sudan Local Time — a three-part mini documentary series that explores the experience of the South Sudanese diaspora in Alberta.

In this conversation, Dr. Mawien Akot provides more context for the history of the civil wars in South Sudan, and sheds light on some the underlying causes of the deaths within the South Sudanese community.

Links:
Check out our article, Searching for Solace, to read more stories from the South Sudanese community in Edmonton.