Kenyan refugee camp to Geelong VFL hopeful: Inside the incredible journey of Anakie’s Ajang Kuol mun

Born in a refugee camp Ajang Kuol mun has faced tragedy and struggle throughout his life. After a breakout season, he finds himself in the VFL frame. He shares his incredible story.

Ajang Kuol mun opens up on his incredible journey.

Ajang Kuol mun was born in a Kenyan refugee camp.

His brother, Eadiet, never made it out.

“I had an older brother, he passed away. I believe it was of malaria, I think he passed away when I was about three. The year before we were meant to come over (to Australia) he passed away,” Kuol mun said.

“He passed away when we were younger and that’s when it was like, we really need to get (out). Because I think it was a really simple, curable disease but the resources were lacking.”

The Anakie sensation, who is currently training with Geelong VFL after just one season of senior football, spent the first four years of his life there as his family attemped to flee their wartorn homeland of South Sudan.

Arriving in Australia in 2007, Kuol mun has endured the deaths of family and close friends on these shores as well.

Ajang Kuol mun in action for Anakie.

“I lost my older cousin who was like an older brother to me. I also lost about three of my friends here in Australia, each to various stuff. Violence, suicide, car crashes and stuff,” Kuol mun said.

Kuol mun not only works his butt off for his family, he also does it for the loved ones who are no longer with him.

He views himself as one of the lucky ones despite the tragic and immensely difficult experiences he has faced in his life.

“You look at your life as an extension of people who don’t have the opportunity to be alive right now. Even in Australia I have lost a lot of friends and a lot of family. You never look as your life as your own really, you know, there’s always a lot of people who live through you and your opportunities,” he said.

LOST BOYS

Ajang’s father, Kuol mun, was part of the Lost Boys in South Sudan, a group of young people who were displaced during the second Sudanese Civil War.

They were in Ethiopia briefly before a war broke out there. Then they were found by the Red Cross, which helped them find their way back home to South Sudan.

But military service was compulsory in South Sudan. Despite Kuol mun’s best efforts to flee, he was captured and was forced to become a child soldier around the age of 10.

“He was in the army for about 10 years, he would come back and forth. Because also back in Africa there isn’t really work like that, the only way people money like that is being in the army. That’s why he met my mum when he’d come back for his visits and stuff,” Ajang said.

After a decade serving, Kuol mun and Ajang’s mother, Achol Machok, fortunately managed to flee South Sudan to the Kenyan refugee camp to escape the war and search for a better life.

Five long years later, Ajang’s family touched down in Sydney after receiving humanitarian visas.

Ajang Kuol mun made it to Australia as a child. Picture: Supplied

While they had finally found a land of opportunity, they would face challenges of a different kind in Australia.

The family then took the train down to Melbourne to be closer to family who had already assimilated – but it was a little too close for comfort.

At one stage, Ajang and his family lived with four other families – each with several children – inside the one house, before the government stepped in.

“It was pretty hectic but South Sudanese people are very family orientated but (my parents) also have to raise kids as well,” Ajang said.

“After that, maybe two years, we were able to get government housing … because obviously they saw the situation and gave us government housing here in the west in Werribee.

“And then bounced around houses for a good five years and then came to my current house which is also a government house, we came (to Wydnham Vale) in 2011.”

REPAYING THE SACRIFICE

Kuol mun and Achok Machok work in modest jobs. It hasn’t been a life filled with riches for their children in Australia, but Ajang is eternally grateful for their sacrifice.

“You get glimpses and stuff and your memory just decides to remember stuff of back home. And in terms of gratefulness, my parents they don’t really speak English. They’re not educated in terms of finding work and that stuff but they do a lot of hands on work, so we didn’t grow up with money. But the way I look at it, they have done enough – their job is done,” Ajang said.

“Now it is time for us as kids to repay that and make sure that we use the opportunity properly and make them proud because you don’t want to come all the way for nothing. We’re the same as people that didn’t get the opportunity, and I think it helps in terms of my work ethic.

“Because you always think, what’s the difference between me and somebody in South Sudan that is starving right now? There isn’t really a difference it is just the grace of my parents bringing us here.

Where he has come from through drives him to go to the extra mile in every single thing he does – whether that be his stint with Geelong VFL, or his work in disability support.

However, Ajang admits he wasn’t perfect growing up.

Kuol mun turned heads for Anakie this season.

“Growing up in Wydnham Vale, it is very easy to get mixed up with the wrong crowd,” Ajang said.

“At a stage in my life I did get mixed up with the wrong crowd with my mates and my cousins and stuff.

“Just being in the wrong place at the wrong time sometimes. You see things that you shouldn’t.”

His Christian faith, sport – at that stage a talented football player for Geelong Soccer Club – and his mother’s guidance helped him go back to the straight and narrow.

“But my mum was very good. Even going to church, it keeps you grounded, as a child,” Ajang said.

“In soccer I was playing at NPL level. So that was something to take serious. And pastors and authority figures you know, that guide you.”

RAPID RISE

It takes a special talent to go from soccer star to VFL hopeful in the space of 10 months.

And it is even rarer for a player to be snapped up from the Geelong & District Footbal League – especially from a team being thumped each week.

Having followed his mother’s wishes and switching to soccer instead of Aussie Rules when he was 12, Ajang decided to make his return to footy at Anakie last year.

His raw athleticism saw several VFL clubs clamour for his services mid-year after starring for the cellar-dweller Roos.

He eventually settled on Geelong, who he has been training with since November. And with the fire that burns within him, he will ensure no stone is left unturned.

“Honestly I’m enjoying it a lot, the opportunity is massive,” Ajang said.

“It takes some people eight years of footy to make VFL, it takes a long time and it takes a lot of work. They would tell me for me to make it within my first year, it is massive.

“Literally it’s all up to me in terms of how hard and how far I want to go with it. My work ethic, the work I have put in behind the scenes and stuff. Because (coach Mark Corrigan) Mark has given me the confidence by picking me and giving me the opportunity.”

MAJAK INSPIRATION

Among the clubs keen on Ajang was Werribee, where his idol Majak Daw now works.

A Sudanese refugee himself, Daw has had a few conversations with Ajang and aside from trying to recruit him, the former North Melbourne and Melbourne player provided advice on how he can improve his game.

Kuol mun looks up to Majak Daw. Picture: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

“I have always looked up to Majak Daw, he is actually from my area. He is from Werribee, he went to one of the schools around here,” Ajang said.

He would tell me the type of workload that AFL requires, and even just looking at the stuff he’s doing now with all the stuff that happened with him – it is very hard not to look up to somebody like that.

“He wanted me to come down to Werribee and play with them and be around the boys. He was just telling me how you have to pick an attribute that no one else can beat you in and just, make it your thing. Like his size, which is what made him different from other players.”

It should be no surprise to know that Ajang’s point-of-difference is his mindset.

He will continue striving to join his cousins Bior Malual and Ariek Lual, Werribee VFL players who came to Australia couple of years before Ajang’s family, in the state league.

“Obviously they are at VFL and are trying to make their way as well and take their opportunities. But we all came through the same way: through refugee camps,” Ajang said.

“When you see that type of living it makes you want to make a difference, not just in your life but there’s a bunch of people back home as well without knowing, they are your responsibility as well.”

Originally published as Kenyan refugee camp to Geelong VFL hopeful: Inside the incredible journey of Anakie’s Ajang Kuol mun