Iman: When I came to America, my father was in political exile in Tanzania. I can remember that I sent my first few years of income from working in America to my brothers and sisters for their tuition. And I told them, "Whatever you want to do now, I can do it for you now."

Alek: In my country, families are raised as though they are one. So when you leave, the first thing you think is the ones you left behind. It's natural to help them in any way you can. I found a way to support myself rather than asking for my mum to give me money. I would work before school and send mone back to pay for their rent and food.

Iman: Can you remember what life was like before the civil war?

Alek: My mother would wake up early every morning and go out to the market for fruits and vegetables. When she came back, I'd look through the basket to see what she'd got. It was such a nice household and a beautiful little town. But once the war broke out, everything changed. There was shooting in the streets, so you couldn't go out for days in a row. Sometimes there was nothing at the market, so my mother had to find any way she could to feed us. No one could go out at night because it wasn't safe. One night, people came knocking at the door and we hid beneath the bed. My mum pushed the door closed all the way and the latch made a clicking noise and they must have thought it was a gun being cocked, because they shot up the whole front of the house. We all started screaming and we didn't come out until the morning. It was really scary for us kids. As soon as that happened, we knew it wasn't going to be ever the same. The only way out was for us to get out of the city and go to a nearby village until things cooled down. After a month we went back, but everything had changed. Families were living in the school where we had gone. To go to another school in another city wouldn't work, because the language is different from city to city. Sudan has 250 tribes ans so many different dialects. So life just got harder nad harder.

Iman: When we went to Somalia with the BBC to do the documentary on the famine, the schools had all been closed since 1990. All the children kept asking, "When will the schools open again?" And as you say, the schools had all been turned into homes or orphanages. The first place we visited was the place where I used to go for my summer holidays. It had been so lush and idyllic when I was a child. But when we arrived there were dead bodies scattered all over the streets and people just wandering around in a catatonic state. I finally understood what people mean when they say that you can never go back home. That was the end of my childhood, my innocence. My hear breaks for the children, because they are the ones who fall through the cracks while everyone else is satisfying their political agenda.

Alek: Yes, the civilwar in my country has robbed people of their basic rights- their voices, the necessities of life, even life itself. And here's me who was able to escape to England and go to school and do whatever I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE.

Iman: Does that make you feel guilty and obligated to do something because you are the one who got away?

Alek: Yes it does. The other day I went to do a speech in a school and the kids asked if it made me angry and I said, "If you spend a lot of time being angry you loose alot of time." But what it does make me feel is that I can never forget where I came from and what is happening there. I want to go back to live there again some day. It's a beautiful country and it has amazing culture and history.

Iman: That's exactly why I wanted to do the BBC documentary. At first, I was propelled by anger, because I was watching CNN and all they were showing were the people who were looting the food and the people who were dying. I kept thinking, this is not all there is to Somalia, then I realised that I could help people to see a fuller, bigger picture. When all you see in the media is one particular view of a place, people begin to think, "Oh, it's just another starving African country. There's nothing I can do about it."

Alek: That's true, and that's why I want to raise awareness. Don't just show pictures of starving children. That's not all there is. I saw people struggling to survive and making it. I saw families holding together. I saw kindness and beauty, not just bombing and death. I heard beautiful stories, but that's not what the media shows us. If you are going to tell a story, tell the whole story.

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