Do you have any photo ID?
About 2 weeks after I downsized to Myaree in 2021, I was robbed as I slept and all my photos iD’s were among the goods stolen. Ironically I needed photo ID if I wanted to replace them!Our guest speaker Philip Pitia Lako didn’t have that First World problem - his birth in a grass hut in what is now South Sudan was never recorded, so he really doesn’t know how old he is, or his date of birth, a critical issue when it comes to proving you are who you claim to be. So he was given one!
Philip was “recruited” into the Sudan People’s Revolutionary Army when he thinks he might have been 10 years old, during a long civil war (1955-2005) that eventually led to the creation of a new country, South Sudan. This army removed him from his family and he suffered torture, abuse, given very little food, or any safe places to hide during frequent aerial bombardments.
With the help of a Norwegian Agency and an Irish priest, Philip escaped to Kenya and lived in a Refugee Camp “where hope quickly fades away”. He was eventually accepted into Australia. However he found the resilience to muster hope when all seemed impossible, and is now determined to be of service to others. One manifestation of this is his membership of RC Perth. He has written a book about his life “The Ten-Year-Old Man” and the funds raised from sales are donated to the Rotary Foundation.
Australia “gave me the opportunity to imagine my full potential”, Philip told us, as well as a realisation that while a really important day in your life is the day you are born (whenever that is), another is the day you find out why.