![Awad carries his 80-year-old mother, Dawa, to a tent in the transit site between Jamam and Gendrassa refugee camps. UNHCR / B. Sokol / August 2012](https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20200208092348im_/https://www.unhcr.or.th/sites/default/files/imagecache/cover/Awad 1_0.jpg)
Awad’s Story, South Sudan
For 15 grueling days, he carried both his elderly mother and his daughter Zainab on his back.
When fighting erupted in Kormaganza, Blue Nile state, in September last year, 80-year-old Dawa Musa’s family decided to flee to the neighboring village of Mafot. Dawa was too frail to make the two-day journey by foot, so her son, Awad Kutuk Tungud, hid her in the bush for three days while he moved his wife, Alahia, and nine children to safety. Awad returned for his mother and carried her to Mafot, where the family remained in relative safety for several months – until artillery began shelling the village.
![UNHCR / B. Sokol August 2012 UNHCR staff member James Aliet, himself a former refugee, speaks with 80-year-old Dawa Musa, left, in the transit site. UNHCR / B. Sokol August 2012](/20200208092348im_/https://www.unhcr.or.th/sites/default/files/u3/awad%20unhcr%20refugee%20south%20sudan%202_2.jpg)
Awad again fled with his family – this time across the border to South Sudan. For 15 gruelling days, he carried both his elderly mother and his daughter Zainab on his back, until they reached the border crossing at Al Fudj in February. UNHCR transported the family to Jamam refugee camp in South Sudan’s Upper Nile state. They lived in safety for seven months until heavy rains caused flooding, making it difficult for UNHCR to bring clean water to the camp and bringing the threat of highly contagious waterborne diseases.
![UNHCR / B. Sokol / August 2012 A portrait of Dawa at the transit site. UNHCR / B. Sokol / August 2012](/20200208092348im_/https://www.unhcr.or.th/sites/default/files/u3/dawa_awad_mom_refugee_sudan_0.jpg)
UNHCR set up a new camp in Gendrassa, located 55 kilometers from Jamam and on higher ground, and began the relocation of 56,000 people to the new camp. Among them were Awad and his family. Awad carried his mother once again, but this time it was to their new tent in Gendrassa camp. Awad has plans to begin farming. “Come back in three months,” he said, “and there will be maize growing.”
See more images of Awad’s journey: https://www.flickr.com/photos/unhcr/sets/72157631558100120/