South Sudanese community tired of losing youth to violence
Posted Sep 8, 2018 12:04 pm.
Last Updated Sep 8, 2018 1:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The South Sudanese community is fighting back after losing several of its young people to guns, gangs, violence, and crime.
There used to be a joke if someone called the home of a south Sudanese family early in the morning, chances are they were from back home. But now, some Calgary mothers are worried it could be the police will be on the other end of the call.
The community has buried more than its fair share of young people–something advocates like Gar Gar would like to change.
“[When] the influence is more of ‘let’s just go and hang out and go do bad things as youth’, that’s where we see more bad things happening,” he tells CityNews. “If they learn bad things, or sometimes they don’t know who to talk to… that leads back to the bad advice.”
A team of officials started raising money for things like scholarships to push their youth into a different direction and away from violent crime. And while it’s already having some positive effects, they don’t plan on stopping there.
Gar says they plan on expanding their efforts moving forward.
“Dreams always build a hope. Our dream is to encourage these youth to do whatever successful endeavor they want. Whatever they become, [we want them] to have a ripple effect and come back and contribute.”
These efforts don’t go unnoticed either.
“There’s so many well-educated youth in these particular communities as well. The challenge is to real them back in,” says the Calgary Police Service’s Constable Raul Espinosa.
