Hope After War: Aduk’s Journey From Loss to Faith

When Aduk fled South Sudan, she didn’t know where she was going, only that she had to run.

Key points:

“We were running at night,” she recalls. “There’s no street light. It’s always dark. You can’t see the person in front of you.”

What began as a desperate escape turned into years of unimaginable loss, resilience, and ultimately, faith.

Separated from her husband and her infant son in the chaos of war, Aduk found herself walking for months through the desert, surrounded by fear and grief. “People were tired, people were sick, people were wounded — you name it, all the disasters of war,” she says.

Her husband disappeared first, trying to help someone who was calling out for help in the night. “He said, ‘Sit here, I’m coming,’” she remembers. “And then I never saw him again.”

Later, as she fled another attack, her mother, carrying her baby boy, vanished into the darkness. “I didn’t want to call because if I called them, I’d call the enemy,” she says. “That’s how I lost my son and my mother for years.”

Separated from her husband and her infant son in the chaos of war, Aduk found herself walking for months through the desert, surrounded by fear and grief.

Aduk eventually reached Ethiopia and later Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp. “When we got there, we didn’t know that one day we’d smile or be happy,” she says. “There’s no plan. You just sit there; you don’t know what’s next.”

Reunited by grace

Five years after losing her family, Aduk was working in Kakuma with orphaned children when an aid worker told her something extraordinary: they had found her mother and her son.

“My body was shaking,” she remembers. “The week became too long, [it felt] like a year.”

When they finally reunited, her little boy, now seven years old, didn’t recognise her. “I wanted to hug him, but I was a stranger to him,” she says. “I told him, ‘I’m your mum. It doesn’t matter, you push me away, you’re here.’”

Her husband, who had been wounded and taken to a camp hospital, was there too. “Two years later, we were reunited, three of us together again,” she smiles. “I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even know if I was crying or laughing.”

Five years after losing her family, an aid worker told her something extraordinary: they had found her mother and her son.

Hope, love and life itself

Aduk’s story, now told in her book For Hope, Love and Life Itself, written with Australian author Belinda Peoples, is a story of faith that survived war, loss, and displacement.

“I did have hope,” she says. “When my husband was missing, I hoped one day I’d see him. When I was in the dark, I hoped one day I’d smile.”

Her faith, planted in childhood through her father’s daily Bible readings, carried her through the darkest years. “I was brought up in a strong Christian family,” she says. “But when all this happened, I asked, ‘Where is God? Why did God punish me?’”

Still, even in despair, she prayed. “One night I woke up and prayed, ‘Let me hope that one day I’ll smile, one day I’ll be happy.’”

Years later, now living in Australia with her husband and children, Aduk says she has seen God’s faithfulness. “God listened to my prayers,” she says. “He gave me strength, He put hope in me, and He supported me.”

Listen to the full conversation in the player above.

A message for anyone struggling

For Aduk, her story is not just about survival, it’s about faith that grows through hardship. “Maybe I was there to tell the story,” she says. “Maybe God made me closer to Him.”

She believes anyone, no matter their circumstances, can find the same strength in God. “Trust God,” she encourages. “Tell God what you want from Him. Put your heart in it, put your mind in it, and God will listen to your prayers. God is not far away. God is close. He just wants your heart.”

Listen to the full conversation in the player above.

Enter below for your chance to win a copy – entries close 11:59, November 26 2025.

This article was prepared with AI assistance and carefully reviewed by our Digital team.

Feature image: Supplied (Aduk Dau)