Adam from Sudan - UNHCR Refugee Speakers Programme 2025

The Refugee Speakers Programme is run by UNHCR with support from TEDx. It gives people with refugee backgrounds the opportunity to develop their storytelling and public speaking skills. The programme aims to create space for stories that too often go unheard. When refugee situations are discussed, the focus is often on numbers. The numbers matter, but they do not tell the full story. Behind every number is a person, a family, and a life shaped by experiences of forced displacement. Adam was forced to flee Sudan in 2015. In his story, he describes, among other things, his time in prison in Libya, where he was subjected to extreme violence and torture. When he received the news in 2022 that he would be coming to Sweden, he believed his suffering was over. But, as he puts it, the trauma remained in his body. He received care through the Red Cross Treatment Centre, where he now also works himself.