I used to have a meaningful job, a loving family and a strong community. All that changed overnight. There was a regime change. I lost my job and found myself targeted by the new military government. One day I came home to find my father and brother had been beaten by police for refusing to reveal my whereabouts. I used all my cash to pay a taxi driver to smuggle me over a border into the neighbouring country. I lived for three years in a refugee camp, unable to work, surviving on meagre rations, before I finally got a work permit. Eventually I became a permanent resident. I wasn’t a citizen, but at least I was safe. 

This is the fictional journey I went on when I participated in “Explore the Refugee Highway,” a choose-your-own-adventure-style game that was set up in Kildonan Park on Aug. 29 to give Winnipeggers a taste of the terror, risks, challenges and occasional breakthroughs faced by refugees. 

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I was one of the lucky few. 

“Historically only one per cent of all refugees ever make it to a safe third country like Canada,” said Tim Nielson, a pastor who helped organize the event. 

City Church, where Nielson ministers, is made up largely of former refugees. They gather for services in English, Chin, Karen, Punjabi and Farsi in a red brick, Gothic-style church building on Maryland Avenue.........

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