As a child, I experienced the violent war in South Sudan, and I saw dead bodies and bones in the bushes. The images of these scenes haunted my dreams and struck me with fear of being hunted and killed. After my uncle disappeared as a consequence of the war, my family decided to send us children away to seek refuge in Uganda. We had to walk for 21 days straight through the lands without food or water, trying to avoid the violence and other dangers on the way. When we reached the border, we were kept in a UN camp, where we felt alone and ostracized by the others. As a child missing his mother and haunted in his dreams by fear, the loneliness and despair grew day by day. See how women from similar backgrounds to us started taking care of me like their own child, allowing me to feel safe and loved, and helping me to start processing my trauma and find strength to focus on learning at school. Thanks to a teacher seeing me and recognizing me, I found motivation to excel, creating opportunities for me to start dreaming. A scholarship allowed me to study and engage in youth leadership and refugee awareness. I went back to empower other youth with a refugee background to help me feel alive again and started to see myself as a human being capable of anything I set my mind to. Today, I engage in global politics as the co-founder and executive director at African Youth Action Network (AYAN). This is my story.