After surviving two abductions, tribal wars and a Kenyan refugee camp, it’s not surprising that Apolonia Pius has plenty of courage.
Apolonia, who is one of the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly Woman of Courage finalists, has also survived a life-threatening heart condition and breast cancer, and now helps to settle other refugees in Wellington.
After growing up in Sudan, at just 13 years old, Apolonia and six of her friends found themselves dodging bullets and running for their lives, chased by rebel troops.
“They were shooting at us – we had to run and run and run. We got so dehydrated that they caught us,” she recalls with a shudder.
After being kept for one day, the rebels released the children, and two years later, after surviving a grenade attack on a Christmas party they were attending, Apolonia’s terrified family decided to flee to Uganda.
“There was a lot of killing. We knew it was time to go,” she says.
But life was still tense in war-torn Uganda, and Apolonia was abducted by a group fighting the civil war there.
“They wanted to kill us,” explains Apolonia, who only survived because she had been taught to speak English in Sudan.
“I was helping them translate documents – that’s the only thing that kept me and my friends alive.”
She managed to talk her captives into releasing them, and a few years later, in 2001, Apolonia decided to seek asylum in Kenya. It was there she found happiness in a refugee camp in the arms of Francis Loguly, who she married in 2002.
But their honeymoon period was short-lived. Two months after their wedding, Apolonia was struck down by a heart condition, which doctors warned could kill her at any time.
“I was living my life waking up and opening my eyes, thinking, ‘I’m still alive,'” she recalls.
By this time Apolonia was pregnant with her first son Henry (now 7), and her inflamed aorta meant her chances of being accepted as a refugee in Australia or New Zealand were extremely slim.
Australia immediately rejected her application but New Zealand accepted Apolonia and her family, despite her health condition, and her first stop after landing in Auckland in 2005 was Greenlane Hospital to repair the condition.
Three months later, the family moved to Wellington where Apolonia discovered she was expecting another child.
Doctors were still worried whether her heart could withstand pregnancy and suggested a termination, but Apolonia and Francis decided to keep the baby and welcomed another boy, ooses (now 4), into their family.
Thrilled with her new safe life in New Zealand, Apolonia was unprepared for yet another deadly health scare – this time, breast cancer. Apolonia was 31 when she received the diagnosis and believes the disease could have been linked to emotional distress she had suffered.
She’s since had a mastectomy and been through radiation and chemotherapy, and so far the cancer hasn’t spread. At the same time, Apolonia has been working hard to help other refugees settle in New Zealand, saying she’s in the perfect position to offer support.
“I have a lot of experience. I have experience with life, experience with refugees and experience with suffering.
“Everybody is happy when they come here – if they get sick, they get treated. But they become stressed when they can’t get their family members into New Zealand.
“oany have suffered past traumas which make them stressed out and they don’t know how to express it. The language barrier makes it hard to talk to health services,” says Apolonia (33), who also acts as an interpreter.
Being named a Woman of Courage in the Lesley Pearse awards has also done wonders for Apolonia’s confidence, and she’s writing a book about her experiences.
“I’ve realised it’s time now for me to let others know how strong I can be,” says Apolonia, who advises women to stay strong in the face of adversity.
“I feel happier now. I know my weaknesses and my strengths. I pray I don’t get more challenges because I don’t think I could handle any more.
“The human body can endure a lot. We can shut it down by feeling negative about it but if we feel positive we know we can make things work and do the impossible.
If you stress yourself out, you get sicker and weaker, but if you make yourself strong you can fight anything that comes your way – including cancer.
“With my experiences with cancer and the abduction I still had to keep my mind focused and strong. If you end up with depression that is when you can lose everything, but you really need to keep on going.
“No matter what the problem is, life will not wait for you – life will go ahead and it can’t wait until the problem goes. You have to move along with it.”
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