Transcripts For CSPAN QA Lual Mayen 20240713

Susan what we are looking at is a videogame you have produced. With the title salam. What is the premise of this game . Lual the purpose of the game is in my journey and in the gaming industry, i realized that video games are a powerful tool to bring communities together and also to create empathy and to help people understand the war crisis. When i created this, theres a people that do not understand who refugees are and what actually it takes them to become refugees. So this is a game that help people understand the journey to being a refugee. So you take them to a peaceful environment. And also in the game, we do not identify which one is a peaceful environment. Its not a country. But its a place where you can have a place of peace, a place of refuge. A place where you can have peace of mind. The most important thing that in the game you take a character from the war country, from a place like theres a lot of hardship on their way, their journey because a lot of people , dont understand what the journey is. So you have to give them water. You have to give them medicine all the hardship for you to win the game. Susan so who do you hope will play your game . Lual the video Game Industry is defined by people allowed to play games, people that actually take decision to be able to say, hey, i want to play this game because of this. When i started creating salam its to create awareness. Awareness to all the people in the world. It doesnt have a limitation as long as you understand what it means to be a refugee. High School Students can play the game, anybody can play the game as long as you understand and love the game. Susan how do people access it . Lual its coming in the summer in 2020. It is going to be on instinct game. Wherewill be a platform you can play the game instantly. You can use a computer. You can use your phone. You play instantly. So im really so excited. Its a platform that has almost 700 million players right now. So were excited to publish the game. Susan we have some stats that we have about the video Game Industry. And there are big numbers. First of all, it is estimated that 2. 5 billion gamers around the world, in the u. S. , 164 million. Thats about a population of 330 the global videogame revenue, in 2018 139 billion and 72 are , using their mobile phone in order to access it. Thats a huge market that youre tapping into. How do you make your way in an industry that is that large . Lual that was my biggest reaction when i was making video games and taking a different path of like making games for peace and conflict resolution making game for such an impact. When i started this journey, wanted to create something thats going take me to where i am today but my main focus was i wanted to create Something Different in the game. Because this is an industry that grow every day. We have young people that play the game. The most important part of the industry it is not like the movie industry when people play games you make a decision. Its empathy. Its not like sitting on your couch and watch a movie. When you play a game, you make a decision. One example i always tell people is that when you play a game with your friend and your friend kill your character, you dont tell your friend why did you kill your character . It becomes part of you. This industry really brings people together. We can use the same industry to tell people about the crisis in the world because games are amazing. People can make decisions. It is part of empathy. I feel like for me to find myself in the industry like this, when i wanted to go in 2018 was because the industry created something new which was actually the last people that are using the part of game to bring about positive change in our communities because this is something that is needed. This is something a lot of people talk every day like, hey, games are not good. Games promote violence. But we can use this medium as a tool of change. Its not just change in terms of playing the game but a different kind of game. When you look at my game salaam it is the first game that is about the reality on the ground. And what i mean by that is that when a player buy food in the game for your character to survive and when you buy water in the game for your character to drink and survive and run over like this, the Long Distance for them to go to this to go to their final destination youre buying , someone in the refugee food and medicine and water. So its not just like playing the game. Its more than that. Susan its helping people . Lual yeah. Susan you rightly mentioned how critical people are that dont play games, theyre a negative power. It seems to be action and violence that attracts gamers to a game. How you do hope to attract the attention for people to play the game when you dont have so much violence . When you dont have anger in it . What will bring people to your game . Lual first of all, the story of the game. When youre designing the game you need to have what is your mission . What is your mission and what is your target audience . Were defined by people who like to play the game. Its like a roleplaying game where you know the story and what is your purpose in playing the game . So the stories are really important in every game. Because its the best way of storytelling. When someone like when a kid plays the game, they will really understand is hey, what i learn today is play a game of refugees to see some of the difficulties that refugees go through and what can i be able to play, what control i be able to play as a player, to be part of that, to be able to get them from a war country to a peaceful environment . And one of the things that people dont understand is that even in critical wars, everywhere we make decisions on the refugees because we dont really understand who they are. Some people will say were you a refugee . I was a refugee. What they dont understand is the journey i went through to become a journey to become a refugee. Its the story of making people aware that of the story that refugee got through. Someone can play today and in the next 10 years theyre going to be in power and when theyre making decisions the game might help them to really understand what the journey of a refugee is. It is more about giving information and the story of the game. Susan when i thought about the game its not only the refugee experience but how to solve problems without conflict. How do you approach conflict resolution in the game . Lual we have a design part on the fly where things popup in the game. For example how you do resolve this conflict. The question will be asking you like which country do you think is going through conflict. And then you can choose. What role can you be able to do as a person to be able to resolve that conflict . It brings somebody into an understanding of what role can they play . Because people think about conflict as like maybe south sudan or yemen are going through conflicts. But what can we do as an individual to be able to understand conflict resolution . And thats why some universities are how we can utilize the games to be able to bring people on the table and play the games. Susan are you a real pioneer in this area of games for good, or is there a Thriving Community of people thinking about that . Lual there is a Gaming Community in the game. Sometimes we call them serious game. Its a big community. And we really want to make sure the community is like getting there. We are game for good like action game, theres like role playing games. We are not really huge in the industry. Were kind of like coming up because the other part is most of the game the other question people ask me game for good and you make money. You want to seek funding. And thats why i as a company i had to come up with the company which is like a Business Company to make sure that making game for good and youre also able to sustain the company to make more games. So its like the business part of it is actually its not making us to thrive a lot as the game for good community. Susan you had quite a path from running your company to your beginning. I want to spend some time and have you tell your story. Where were you born . Lual i was born in a place called ashua. Its between south sudan and uganda. Its on the side of south sudan, actually, thats were i was born. My parents had to flee country because of the war. Susan they fled south sudan . Lual more than 250 miles to northern uganda. They didnt know what they were going. They were just going through the bush to flee toward a mile walking every day. My father had to take a different road and my mother had to take a different road with my sibling because during that time when a woman is fleeing at the same time with her husband and to find them on the way they will kill all of them or the husband. So my father had to take a different road. My mother had to take care of my of the children and thats how i lost two of my sisters. Susan two of them died enroute. And youre pregnant and your mother was pregnant with you . Lual and my mother was pregnant with me. There was a lot of people that were all fleeing at the same time. There were massacres. It was not easy. And for them there were just closing in the bush going through ambush, going through there was contaminated water, like going through the grass, you know, going through the rebar. It was not easy for them and there was no food. I remember like my mom told me even the day she was giving birth, like she didnt even know. She didnt even eat no food in the evening, she gave birth to me. And like it was not easy. It was like the worst moment of her life. Nobody was taking care of her and the child was born. Like, it was outside, like in the bush and so on. And what really gave her a lot was she was not like the only woman theres a lot of women. And she told me like, even some women threw out their children because they dont want them to suffer. When i was born she said i was so strong. She was like, im not going to do anything to him. Im not going to throw him. Im going to keep him because it because may be it was a gift to me. It was not easy being a refugee people think its something where you just wake up in the morning and leave what you love. Its a hell of a journey. Its a journey of death and life. Its a journey of like youre traumatized. You dont know what youre doing. You dont know where youre going. You dont know what to eat. You dont know like you just count your days until you reach that place ashua was born and moved to the refugee camp and that is where they got some humanitarian assistance. Susan and where was the refugee camp they were in . Lual it was called mungali in northern uganda. My father meet up there. And the u. N. Helped them give them some tents. And start a family there. And then they start like, you know, living there. And it became part of their life. Susan how large was that refugee camp . Lual it was really big. It was a big community. I would say its like i really dont know exactly how many people but its a big community. Its really big. Susan what are your early earliest memories of the refugee camp . Lual my earliest memories, to me i would say maybe when i was 7 because when i was born and on the way i was so weak i couldnt really remember anything. I was even at the age of five i didnt know i was living. There was no food as a child. There was no it was so hard. Some of the memories i remember was struggling to get food, struggling to like to find something to play with as children. And and like food was the biggest issue. I remember like i would wake up in the morning around 8 00 a. M. Go to the bush so that we can go and get some fruits to eat. And you like there was a river near and there was some fish, so you can get fish in the water. So youre struggling to find something to survive. And it was really dangerous. You can go to the bush and theres a lot of wild animals there. You go to the river, theres like crocodile and they were like really dangerous things. As children we couldnt care because we didnt wanted to like find something to eat because thats how we can survive. When you come back home you only have one meal in the day and its not enough. You wake up in the morning and you go back out and i remember the worst memory i ever had was when i went and my friend to the bush to find some mango fruits. And i climbed the mango tree. And my friend climbed as well. And when i got my mango tree, my and when i got my mango tree, i came down and my friend was still up. He fall from a mango tree. And he hit his head on this and died on the spot. And that is like the worst memory i can remember as a child because just we wanted food to eat and that food ended up killing my friend. And i came back home and i told people and what happened the next day, i went back on the same mango tree get fruit because i dont have another option. If anybody see yesterday it was like the worst day i still went back. So our refugee camp its more than what people think. Its its its not fun. Its not nobody deserves to be there. But for people that have left their country, they deserve to be there because when i was in the refugee camp, it was my great moment when you looked at me in the refugee camp, i was happy because thats all i can be contented with. Thats the only life that i knew. Theres not any other life more than i know. Susan was there schooling for children . Lual there was school where they teach you like and mother teachers are not well trained. Some of them speak dinka. And some of them speak english. And even for us we would have no inspiration to go to school because what are you going to do when you go to school in theres and theres no way theyre going teach you because its not a well its not a good school actually. Susan so tell me the story of how a computer came into your life . Lual yeah. I remember when i was actually in the refugee camp, i was so creative more than anything. Thats the thing that help me a lot. And i will do anything that anything creative. And people in the refugee camp would like it. I remember i would i would use batteries use batteries from a torch and i would connect the whole at least 10 houses with a flight lights. And people loved it. I was so creative a lot. Susan where do you think that creativity came from . Lual maybe from my mother. My mother was also like so creative. But again when you are living in a lot of situation, it caused you do be so creative. Sometimes it happens. Susan so the story of the computer came about how . Lual the story of the computer was there was a refugee registration. People wanted verification. And during that time, they send people maybe from kampala or from United Nation and they were giving out computers. We were in the line and i saw someone was using the laptop. I told my mother, what is that . And they were like, thats a laptop . And i was like, how did you even know it . She has never been to school. And she was like thats a computer. In my heart i was like i want to use that one day. Like i just that moment i saw it, i felt like i really wanted to use it. And i kept it to myself. One day i came to my mother and i said i need buy a computer. Susan how old were you . Lual that was 2010. So maybe 17. Yeah, thats like 2010. And i told her like i need a computer. And she was like, what are you going to do with a computeer . Theres no money. Theres no power for you to charge it. Theres no one to train you with a computer. First of all, why are you asking for a computer . I just asked what i love. And because shes a mother, she she was like, its fine. She kept quiet. She did not disappoint me. She did not say this is not happening. She just kept quiet. And she went to work so hard for like three years looking for 300 to buy for me a computer. She didnt tell me, hey, lual im going to work to buy you a computer. Susan she surprised you. Lual she surprised me. Yeah, the day she brought to she brought the money and said, lual this is money to buy a computer is the day that changed my life. Because i thought how did you get the money . And and again, if i dont use it and then theres no power theres nobody going train me so what am i going to do with it . And to me i asked myself if i dont utilize it and then one day my two brothers are going ask my mother for Something Special in my life and even lual asked me a computer and he never used it. Its like what im going to do is going to affect my brothers. So it was a moment that was a moment for me to see what can i do with this. Susan so how do you overcome the problems of not having power . Lual if my mother can walk 250 miles to serve us how about me , if she can work three years looking for 300. How about me . I can still do it. From there, i found out that theres a place where i can charge my laptop. It is like three hours away from it is like a center there, an internet cafe. Its like the u. N. Center and they have internet cafe and its called best comment so i walked three hours one way and three hours coming back to charge my laptop. I was excited because i found a solution to be able to charge my laptop. So i would walk there every day. Sometime i would find out theres no power. But its fine. I would come back home. Charge my laptop. And then i started getting tutorials so i can be able to learn how to use basic computer programs. Yeah. Susan youre native language is dinka. But the computer is mostly english. How did you teach yourself english in order to learn to use the computer . Lual i had to learn get tutorials online. Learn some english. It was the biggest struggle. So i had to really focus a lot and utilizing knowing english, knowing math, and also using online tutorials so i can be able to read and also practice them. Susan and when was the first time that you encountered on that computer a video game . Lual that was 2016 actually. So i went to an internet cafe, the same internet cafe. And then my friend installed a video game called grand theft auto. Auto. Arand theft very violent game. Lual yeah. So i came back home. And i followed the icon on my laptop. Im like what is this . This is something new. I never had it. And then i clicked on it, and then it opened. And i was like, wow, what is this . And then i went to see how to play the game. I got a tutorial on how to play the game. Then i start training myself how to play the game. I never thought even video games are made from people. I just thought they fell from heaven because i didnt know anything about the industry. So when i played the game thats when i got the inspiration to actually make video games. Susan so you played the game and then you said, i can do this. Lual i played the game. To play grand theft auto, i was like wow as someone who has been through war as someone who has been from south sudan because my country is a country that has over 73 of the population is under the age of 30. These are all young people. They were raised up in war. So the mindset even in a refugee camp is to think about war. So when i was playing grand theft auto, i thought how about this team from south sudan starts playing video games . Not because it is too violent but in my country its the same thing, killing people and you feel like this is how things are done. And im like how about creating a video game for peace and conflict resolution as a way because for me, i believe that true peace is something that is built over time. And its change of mind. We should make peace as a product something that interacts with people, it is not just coming together and signing a ceasefire. Susan where does all these ideas come from . Lual thats a good question. I even ask myself today how did that happen . I mean, i guess i was just battling with all of this. I just susan did your mother have conversations with you about it . Did your teachers or was this all selftaught . All self generated . Lual it was it was i thought about all that. Even my mother didnt know what i was doing. She didnt even know what video game she didnt even know anything. Like, i was just there like making sure i can do what i can as a human being. And one thing one thing people dont understand is that whenever we always have a human talent. And that human talent doesnt matter even if youre under the ground or even if youre the poorest country in the world, from the poorest community or like if you are going through a difficulties, there is a human talent that always pushes you to do things and that allows us not to give up. And thats what i always think about today, is that for someone to see my talent and see and invest in me, there was nobody from like the best country in the world. It was somebody in the same household and it was my mother. She saw it. She invested in may. And some time will help. It has to come from within. And that really, really helped me a lot. My mother was a big inspiration for me and she has really taught me so much. And to be able to create a video game right now and realizing that games are very powerful tool that we can deal with to change the world and where we are today i say i make video games. Ok. Go for it, which is really good. Susan this is in 2016, this was only three short years ago when you first saw this game. So walk me through what , happened. How did you teach yourself to make a video game . And what happened next . Lual so when i had the inspiration of hey, i want to make game for peace. I want to make game for the social impact and for the refugees. The first game im going to make is just to help the refugees come together and play games. So they can have some sort of entertainment. My main focus was not like im going to create a game for like the youth community. Mine was to help children in the refugee camp so they can have something to kind of smile. So i head the video game the same man salaam, a very small game. With that, i had to train myself with Graphic Design do my own , sound, go and learn tutorials so i can create the game. Every day programming ive done so many things in life. And that programming and i make an error, and i would just go throw my computer away. After one week then i would come , back and fix it. I would have an error but there was nobody there. Like, this is a problem. This is how you can solve it. So i have to like, keep the consistencies and keep working and loving what i was doing and train myself. After i create the game. And i started giving it to the refugees, and they were so happy. I could see a smile on their face. I could see like them coming together and play a game. Like, how did you make this game . Some of them are like, i want to make games. And that really help me a lot to be able to push because the refugees were my biggest source of inspiration. Because whatever i did, they were excited for it. Because i did something great it wasnt perfect. But people were like, this is great though. I keep on creating. And then one day thinking to myself what can do i to be able to like the reason why i made the game which is 10 its a small game. Because there was no internet. Theres no way i can public the game. So i always use bluetooth to share the game. I would do filesharing bluetooth to be able to share it with them. Sometimes they dont have a phone, and then i would use my mobile phone for them to share and play. And then one day i was like, what can i do to distribute this game to more people . Maybe let me just upload it on my Facebook Page which is the most crazy thing which nobody has ever done. You cannot upload a game on a Facebook Page like a picture. I just had that inspiration. Let me just upload it. I told people, hey, i made a game. And from there, people start sharing it. And then it went viral. A lot of videogame Community People were like how did you make the game . This is nice. And the founder joined us. It was in berlin, germany, from germany. And he reached out to me and he said, oh, man i saw your game. This is amazing. How did you make it . I want to invite you to south africa. I was like, well, that was my first time. Susan we actually have video of that. So you were invited to a conference. Were going to show an interview of 2016. It was the same year at that conference. And as we get this ready, this is your First Time Ever traveling. Lual ever traveling, going on a flight. In order to get the knowledge that we have some Different Countries. As someone who into technology, i realize that so i stuck it in one of my first games. And i got big words because. [indiscernible] so im going to bring peace in the country through i. C. T. , through gaming. Its a mobile application. Its available on android. You can play with any in any form. It is a piece bringing game. Susan so that was your first it is a peace bringing game. Susan so that was your First Venture into the international community. What does that do for your efforts that recognition . , lual that really helped me understand what the Gaming Community is. And really give me exposure that the Game Community. And the biggest thing most of the support i get is from african game designers. They really helped me. When i went back actually this was a three days conference. I went back to the refugee camp. Every day im on the phone. I am talking to people from south africa and berlin and San Francisco. And it was because of this opportunity. And they actually sent me more tutorials. And i would send them back my code and they could help me it was a biggest change in my life. Susan did you get formal schooling along the way . Did you go to college . Lual no i did not. Susan all of your learning has been selftaught . Lual selftaught. Most of the time. Gaming. Working so hard to teach myself every day. Susan so what was your next step after this conference . How did you move from there to the next stop on your journey . Lual my biggest thing is i was just keeping exploring more ideas to be able to see like what what can i be able to achieve. And the biggest thing is that even after this conference i had no idea that i was able to leave the refugee camp. Mine was just to keep on building because i had no inspiration. And and with that ive been in the refugee camp for more than 22 years. My family has been there for more than 25 years. A lot of people think that a refugee camp is a temporary place. Its not. Its a permanent place. After the conference, it really helped me connect with a lot more developers and designers and actually giving me the guidelines of the Game Community and what i can be able to do and actually helping me exactly how to scale my my game and also how to scale my business and also see what can i do more than what i have already. And that helped me a lot. Susan how did you think of it beyond being a game to being a business at that point . Where were you getting were the people that were mentoring you helping you to think about it more broadly . Lual from there exactly one of the things was as a business i knew that i would be able to really create something in the refugee camp. Susan but you had no experience. Lual yeah. In the refugee camp they do people do small businesses. But through that experience, it helped me to really learn like how can i sell my product . How can i make my own product and make a tshirt and all that stuff to be able to sell . That helped me to see how can i be able to make this game as a platform that can be able to not only me but bring more people. But again, it took me a long time just to like as a business but i was the only person working on it because i had no funding. I had no i had no money to be able to bring people and walk on this part. My main idea was to comprise it and make it sure like its a business because opportunities come over time. And because of that as i mentioned i been in refugee camp for 22 years. The same thing with my family. And we applied for a settlement because theres a refugee settlement that refugees are settled from from uganda to australia, to canada, my family, we have applied more than 10 times to all Different Countries and we were rejected didnt allow us to go. Susan how big was your family . Lual we had five. We had five. Yeah, five. And we were rejected and had no idea. With those experiences, i thought i was just meant to believe that a refugee camp. And i could see my neighbors leaving and going to canada. My neighbors going to australia. And i never give up. Its fine let them go and lead their better life. But again, i was contented. I was like, maybe theres a problem. Im not lucky. And everything. So that helped me like, oh, this is my family. And so im just going to utilize everything here because thats how my life is going to be. When i was in south africa its , in africa. And i went through for three days. And came back, and then from there, i was like i want to help help the refugees. And maybe i can train refugees. That was my main focus. And then i was like, i want to keep on building, and building and building. I remember the biggest time i wanted to give up in life theres a lot of times, but the biggest time was like in 2017 when i was invited to San Francisco. Like the biggest video game in like the biggest videogame convention in the world and bring over 30,000 people. Its called the Game Developers conference. They said we want to you we want you to come to this state, to San Francisco and give a talk. And i was like wow. Like finally im going to the u. S. , this is a country i dreamed of coming to. You know what happens the next day . There was a refugee trouble then which affected sudan. And we are south sudan. People do not differentiate. And that time i was like, wow. And i came back home and threw down my computer. I was crying. And my mother saw me and she was like, whats going on. I was like, this is what happens. And i got the biggest opportunity in my life to be able to connect with more game designers and learn more about the Game Industry. And for me to speak over like 30,000 people and like this is the best industry in the world. And because of what i did, thats why i was invited. I threw down my computer because i said im not going to do anything because nothing will ever come out good with from what i did because this is the talent. This is something i want to share with the world. And then this thing happened. And i also remember the days we applied to leave the refugee camp and it couldnt happen. It was the 11th time for me to be rejected. In 2017. Im like, im not going to do anything again. Im not going to code. Im not going to do anything. And my mother looked at me in the face. She was like, let me tell you something lual. I was like what do you mean . She said you cannot steal water from the ocean. What do you mean . Can you explain it to me . If you go to the ocean and have a basket to withdraw water no , matter how much you withdraw from the ocean, it keeps overflowing. And thats how you are. Theres a lot of opportunities coming to your life. It may not be today. Its got to be in the next 10 years. Never give up. Theres a lot of opportunities. You are alive. Nobody knew you were going to be alive. So never give up. Pick up your you computer and that moment really restored my hope. Susan how did you get in with states . Lual then from there i kept on working and then from there there was something called there was a program here in washington, d. C. That being only five companies in the world that are using technology for social good. And i was selected for that. Susan is that run by the u. S. Institute of peace . Lual yes. Susan we have some more video to show because they did a story about you. Lets watch. Lual thank you. The idea for the new game started in south sudan capital juuba. He was able to receive guidance from the peace Tech Accelerator Program earlier this year. The new game has already been distributed in rhino refugee camps in uganda. As well as i. D. P. Sites across south sudan. But mayim says he wants to expand it to other parts of the world. Lual so i have to make sure that im keeping my myself and i believe not be late. [indiscernible] susan you looked pretty sharp. Lual thank you. [laughter] susan you had to get it for the conference in washington . Yeah. So people should know the u. S. Institute of peace is part of the u. S. State department. So what happened next . Lual it really helped me understand the business part of it. And now, we can use start up to be able to use technology. On conflict resolution. And also getting to sit down in with experts sit down with experts in the conflict resolution area. That has helped me connect with universities so they can give me guideline and also understand what conflict is because my main focus is the practical part of it. So i would need it. So that i can be able to put them into practice, yeah. Susan so how did you get here permanently . Lual so from there, i started working. I went back to the refugee camp actually after this. Visahen from there i got a from the world bank. Susan what does a g visa allow you to do . Lual its a program that really help you to like its Like Department its like a green card. But it really is more like to make you stay like for 10 years and so on. Susan and why did you decide to settle in washington, d. C. . Lual because first of all, i its theres a diversity in in washington, d. C. Theres a lot of people here. Theres a lot of organization here. Theres a lot of because my focus is also like to see the other part of like the social impact part of most of one what organizations are doing so that i can be able to react and learn. But along with business i can , always go to San Francisco with the thing to do it like a video game. But the good thing is like it felt like home to me. D. C. Felt like home to me. Its not like its too much. Its not huge. Its not like new york. But like i i love it because it really is like the communities are really great here. And theres also diversities. So i feel like its a great place to live. Susan another big recognition came in 2018. Facebook has a conference gaming conference. And they recognized you as a Global Gaming citizen. Lets watch a little bit of that. Lual yeah. Now, tonight the game awards in Facebook Gaming are recognizing Global Gaming citizens, people who enriching the lives of others around the world through video games. Were going to tell the story of three people that i think you should meet and hear their stories. And im so proud to have these in the game awards. First up, please take a look at his story. Lual you know, being in a refugee camp is not easy. Are you going to leave tomorrow, are you notw going to live tomorrow . I asked my mom to buy me a computer. She saved up money for over three years. It was that moment just turned Everything Everything is possible for me. Susan 26 Million People watched that event on facebook. What happened to you after that . Lual its really helped me a lot. This is actually the main the main the recognition really helped me like get into the Game Industry and connect with really great people, the Game Industry especially people that are running successful video games. Like special like santa monica studio and one of my my best industry friend right now that we are collaborating together and made a video game called god of war. Its one of the best video games of all time. That really helped me to share my ideas and also like see where what the next 10 years is going to be for me. And connecting you in business. Its killing myself i know. Making sure that the game for social good has a space in the video Game Industry. This is a moment that really put us in the mouth of the video Game Industry. Susan you formed a Company Called genube games . What does that mean . Lual genube is like the south. Its based near washington. Susan and do you have employees . Lual so right now, we have we have people in are working on the game. Everywhere like here in d. C. We are in San Francisco and we also have two people in brazil. Susan how are you getting your funding . Lual a lot of things are now more selffunding. But we have people are really supporting us we have a friend that is supporting us to like keep so question it in the game. Susan you want to say his name . Lual luol deng has been an amazing person. Timberwolves. He played in l. A. Then he played in the miami heat. And he played for the bulls. Susan and hes south sudanese. So you connected through your heritage. So where is your family now . Lual so yeah, thats a good thing. Right now, my family is in canada. My family moved to canada four months ago from a refugee camp. Susan and how did that finally happen . Lual that happened because when i came here, my biggest my biggest focus was like what can i do to help my family . What can i do to help my mother . And i worked so hard so that i can work handinhand with the canadian government to help them take them to canada. And it was really a good thing that happened. Susan so tell me about your goal for them . Do you hope to get them to the United States at some point . Lual my goal for them right now, they are first of all, i was having a conversation with my mother actually and, and the first time she called me she was like thank you. That moment changed my life when she went to canada because i never thought my mother was ever tell me thank you. What she has done to me was more than i ever was going to be able to do for her. And that thank you was really amazing. And the first thing she was telling me was like we have a lot of food here. How i can get it back . Because yes, she has maybe some relatives that are suffering back there. And i was like, that is how life is. Think what it was is eat what you have. You have and you cannot have. And my brothers, my sisters do well. They go to school now in canada. So they have a bit more opportunities than me right now. My younger brother is playing soccer, like really professional. And in some part in canada. The plan for them their plan for me is just for my brothers to fall on the right path in life. Thats my main focus and see what that means in to them. Susan weve got about 10 minutes. And i want to do some wrapup questions with you. First of all, so much has happened to you in such a short time. Youre 25 years old. And the arc of your life from refugee camp to living in washington, d. C. And having connections all over the world, having developed this game. Having the Washington Post and cbs news do stories about you. How are you processing all of this . Lual its really hard. Its really hard to process because its its never been something that i ever dream of. But again it give me so much hope that people theres a theres millions of people, theres a lot of refugees. And this really helped me to be able to like compress everything. Make sure that things like this happen. And also just go with the flow. Making this and showing refugees that they can not just only survive but we can thrive. Something like this, its an example of to be the voice for the refugees and give people we can be entrepreneurs. We can employ people. We can make businesses. We can do anything that we wish to do as refugees. And to me it was that kind of press that im getting right now. Im like what can i do to give back. One of the things that im doing right now. And im beginning in january, starting a program in refugee camps to train refugees to become developers. Thats something i have been working on, and i am so happy that im collaborating with a lot of big company to give them resources. And were going to be discussing and we are going to begin this in so thats something im january. Really excited about so we can have more refugees that can be entrepreneurs yeah. , susan can you go back to south sudan . Whats the political situation like there . Lual south sudan, its crazy. You can you can go back. But its a personal decision where you can say, i got go, and everything is fine, its ok. If everything is not good, its like a personal decision. But like everything is not like really good. Susan you want to be an example for refugees. Lual yeah. Susan let me flip the coin. There are so many refugee displaced populations all over the world right now. What do you want people to know about refugees . What should we know as were all having these challenges in countries with large populations coming in . Whats the message you want to give to them about that . Lual the message i need give to them as a refugee by like myself, the moment i became a the moment i became a refugee, was the moment i had that peace of mind. But i want people to understand is the journey. What it takes someone to become a refugee. You understand the root of that, then it would help you that you can be part to change the world. We can do everything to be able to make refugee communities better. The journey is important. Susan how is your mother processing everything that has happened to you . Lual shes happy. Shes having a better life right now. And thats all she is. Thats all she wants. At the end of the day, she doesnt understand what i was doing because shes not educate. Shes not educated. Sometime i would just tell her, hey, im doing something. But i understand that. At the end of the day, shes very happy and what has gone on. And shes very happy that i what she worked for has actually helped the family and also the world as well. Yeah. Susan so if we check in with you in five years, 10 years from now, are we going to see a world recognized video game developer or are going to see a world recognized spokesperson for the plight of displaced people . Where do you want this to go . Is the game a means to an end or are they the end . Lual thats a good question. Youre going to see me like you know, its going to be a big company in the next five, 10 years. Thats my dream. And some other paths im going to take in life, like entertainment, the film industry, maybe. To be able to make sure like, again, as a refugee, i will never stop talking about refugees because it is my life for ever i go. Because i will always remind people who the refugees because who the refugee is because its a crisis that goes every day. Im not someone who say come and talk about refugees. Its part of my life. The videoGame Industry, im going to stick with. Im going to make the social good community, make more games in terms of business, and terms of import, in time of this back to my game, macking sure we help making sure we help millions of people in my game in our purchases. Susan do you hope to be a u. S. Citizen . Lual yes thats a good question. Yes. Susan why is this important to you . Lual this is a great country that a lot of people dream of living in. Its an amazing country. Its a lot of diversity. Theres a lot of its a great its a great country. Susan what do you want people to know about your experience with immigration since were having a big debate about it . You tried one time and couldnt get through because of a program. And youre here now. What should we know about how the system works, from your perspective . Lual im pretty sure its something that i really i feel like we could do better because it dont want people to go through and what people want. I dont want to come to this i country. So i feel like, i think we can do better. You know, we can look into the humanity of people and see how we can help them if it makes sense. Susan i would be delighted to be able to check in with you in five years to see how your dreams and aspirations work out. Lual thank you, thank you for having me. Susan thank you for spending an hour with cspan. I appreciate it. All q a programs are available on our website or as a podcast at cspan. Org. Weon the next few in a, talked to craig about his book author and chief. Which looks at books written by u. S. President s, including teddy roosevelt, calvin coolidge, and barack obama. Thats next sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific, on cspans q a. 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Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Morning, a will talk with Illinois Republican representative rodney davis about operations in congress during the corona virus pandemic. And then a discussion of the overall congressional response to the pandemic with the director of the Wilson Centers congressional relations, erin jones. And a look at changes to how the Supreme Court function with the National Constitution centers Jeffrey Rosen. A short of march cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern on cspan. Join the discussion. And be sure to watch washington journal saturday at 8 00 eastern when we will take calls from High Schoolers around the country as they look to prepare for the ap history exam. Yay, all persons having business before the honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States admonished to draw near and give your attention. The court is now sitting. For the first time in history, you can hear the Supreme Court live. 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