Recent University of Memphis graduate Scovia Wilson is a Sudanese refugee who is using her story to help empower the people of Sudan who are living under an oppressive military dictatorship.
Wilson, 24, is originally from Sudan, but she and her family fled the country when conflict broke out in the country and her father was killed in the civil war. She eventually ended up in the United States, and after her U of M graduation, Wilson went to work for Operation Broken Silence (OBS), an organization that helps Sudanese people by building schools and hospitals and advocating for the Sudanese in the U.S. As part of OBS, Wilson advocates by telling her own story and spreading awareness of the situation in Sudan.
“I’d rather be very frank and very honest with my audience in saying, ‘Hey, this is who I am,’” Wilson said.
In 1989, Omar Hassan al-Bashir seized power in Sudan by staging a coup. Bashir launched a violent military campaign and genocide against the South Sudanese and the people in the Nuba Mountains. South Sudan declared itself an independent country in 2011, but the Sudanese government continues to bomb and massacre civilians in the Nuba Mountains that lay between Sudan and South Sudan.
Wilson and her family fled Sudan when she was 3 years old and stayed in a refugee camp in Kenya before Wilson and her brother went with their family to Uganda to get an education. Wilson said she has happy memories of living in Uganda, where she had a pet monkey.
“I was small, running around eating mangoes and Fanta,” Wilson said. “You know, just a really happy time.”
When Wilson was 8 years old, she caught Malaria and nearly died from it because the hospital she went to was poorly staffed. This experience, she said, is what drove her to study nursing in college.
When Wilson was 9 years old, she, her brother and her grandparents moved to the U.S. as refugees. Wilson said it was hard for her to leave Uganda, and she thought her family would soon return to the country.
“I’m one to hug anyone — I’m one to talk to anyone,” Wilson said. “With my personality, it was easier, but I always miss my things. My friend is probably still waiting on that stone I told her to wait on.”
After finishing high school, Wilson attended the U of M where she studied pre-nursing but later changed her major to public relations. While attending school, Wilson was also trying to become a U.S. citizen. She said it was hard to balance her school work and her citizenship process, but she was glad she managed it.
After college, Wilson did public relations consulting before starting the podcast, “Behind Bluff City” with Kate Friedel. Wilson is currently OBS’s recruitment director. She travels around the country telling her story about being a refugee and to educate people on the conflict in the Nuba Mountains. She said one of the hardest parts of her job is telling her story, but she does it to help the Sudanese people.
OBS helps with hospitals in a refugee camp in the Nuba Mountains, but its primary goal is to make sure the thousands of children in the camp get a good education.
Wilson said she wants to empower the Sudanese by being “a light, a smile and a miracle” to them.
Scovia Wilson, public relations alumni, explains the education and religious section of the exhibit. The exhibit gives a touching look into the refugee lives of the Nuba people in Sudan, Africa.
