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Benson Olivier
Benson juggling a soccer ball
Biography
by Eric Glustrom:
I met Benson Olivier when I went to Kyangwali Refugee
Camp in Uganda in 2002. I met Benson on my first day
in Kyangwali when he introduced himself to me. It
was the first time I had been to Africa and definitely
the first time I had been to a refugee camp so to
make friends with Benson was very comforting. For
the next three weeks Benson and I spent every minute
together and by the end of my trip to Africa, he and
I were best friends.
There are many memories of my time with Benson that
I will never forget, but one stands out in my mind.
It was the first time he took me to his "home"
in Kyangwali Refugee Camp. What he called home is
a mud-hut no larger than the size of an American bathroom
with a small garden in the front where he grew his
food.
When
we walked into his home, I saw all of Benson's belongings:
a wooden stool, a bed made of hay and a few books
in which he wrote from time to time. I asked Benson
how many people had to live in such a small shelter.
This is when I learned that Benson's entire family,
mother, father, two brothers and two sisters had died
while fleeing the bloody civil war in Congo in 1997.
Benson miraculously survived the journey to Uganda
and was relocated in Kyangwali Refugee Camp by the
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees).
He
was 14 years old when he reached the refugee camp
and had to learn how to survive on his own in some
of the worst conditions imaginable. He learned how
to grow his own food, find his own clean water and
live with horrible diseases such as malaria and cholera.
I met Benson when he was 18. I was 17 at the time
and it was unbelievable to me how someone of approximately
my age had been through so much. What is even more
impressive is that Benson has maintained an extremely
warm heart, kind personality and excellent sense of
humor in spite of the hardships he has experienced.
I was filming a documentary, Dream Deferred, about
refugees in Kyangwali, but when I met Benson I decided
to make the film focus on his incredible life. As
we walked throughout Kyangwali filming I taught Benson
how to use my camera and he acted as my sound technician.
Even more helpful than Benson acting as my sound technician
and guide was his ability to translate for me in all
the local languages of the refugees from Congo, Rwanda
and Sudan in Kyangwali. In fact, Benson is an extremely
talented linguist. While conversing with him in English,
I would have guessed that English was his second language.
In fact Benson knew seven languages before he learned
English and he can now converse in ten languages.
He is proud of the fact that he can travel all over
Africa and converse with the locals in the correct
language. He refers to his linguistic ability as "my
talent."
I was extremely sad to leave Benson when I had to
return home to the United States and I did not want
him to have to go back to his life in Kyangwali. I
asked him how I could help and he responded by requesting
for help to go to school. This is when I learned that
the cost of an education in Uganda is only around
$75 per semester. In addition to a quality education,
at school Benson would receive three meals each day,
a warm bed and the safety that was lacking in the
refugee camp.
Before
I left Uganda, I took Benson to a good school in the
capital, Kampala, and got him set up as a student
there. Surprised with how easy and inexpensive it
had been to completely change Benson's life, I decided
to start Educate! so that more refugees could be given
the chance to go to school.
Benson will graduate from secondary school next year
and then continue on to university as an Educate!
Student. He is an excellent student and extremely
grateful for the new life Educate! has given him.
He hopes to become a politician one day so that he
may end the war in Congo that took his family's life
and stop the suffering of the people in his homeland.
-Eric Glustrom
Read
a letter from Benson to Eric
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