:00:00. > :00:13.Welcome and to the 100 Women Interviews -- welcome to. In just
:00:14. > :00:16.ten years she went from dodging bullets in the south of Sudan to
:00:17. > :00:21.strutting her stuff on the catwalks of the world. As a teenager, her
:00:22. > :00:26.parents made a perilous journey to London seeking asylum and before
:00:27. > :00:30.long she broken into the fashion industry at a time when dark skinned
:00:31. > :00:34.models were rare. She has inspired women all over the world and now
:00:35. > :00:54.campaigns for victims of war as one of the UN refugee agency's Goodwill
:00:55. > :00:59.ambassadors. So how did she do it? You have made a life for yourself
:01:00. > :01:03.here in New York. It is very different from where you grew up in
:01:04. > :01:09.the south of Sudan. How was your childhood? Wow. My recollection of
:01:10. > :01:18.my childhood growing up in South Sudan, I was born and raised in Wau
:01:19. > :01:23.and it was really wonderful, I thought. Just doing the simple
:01:24. > :01:27.things such as going to school, not coming straight home, kind of
:01:28. > :01:31.messing around with my schoolmates and getting into the mango trees,
:01:32. > :01:35.eating four even though my mother said no eating mangoes before you
:01:36. > :01:40.come home and eat dinner! Running up the hill, spotting planes because it
:01:41. > :01:46.was just a very simple, small little town. You grew up in a large family
:01:47. > :01:52.with eight brothers and sisters. My older siblings, I am the seventh of
:01:53. > :01:58.nine, although one passed away, bless his soul, but my relationship
:01:59. > :02:05.with my parents... There was a lot of struggle, of course. Especially
:02:06. > :02:10.when the Civil War broke out and it became a lot worse in Wau. And your
:02:11. > :02:16.life just changed? It changed like overnight. Because literally...
:02:17. > :02:21.There was an instant word you were barricaded for three days, shooting
:02:22. > :02:24.and bombing and militias, and there were a lot of break-ins in the
:02:25. > :02:32.middle of the night with neighbours disappearing. It was just really...
:02:33. > :02:36.I saw my parents frightened and that is something, as a child, when you
:02:37. > :02:40.see your parents are scared, you know there is something that is
:02:41. > :02:44.beyond the control of everybody. Did you understand what was going on
:02:45. > :02:50.around you? Did you know what war was and why people were frightened?
:02:51. > :02:57.I mean... I knew there was a conflict. But I was very saddened
:02:58. > :03:00.that we had to leave. It was like somebody chucked you out of your own
:03:01. > :03:08.home, which is exactly what happened. But not just that, you are
:03:09. > :03:12.vulnerable. And there is nobody that will take responsibility if you
:03:13. > :03:18.disappear or if anything happens. So every time you hear somebody
:03:19. > :03:27.disappeared or there was a conflict that took many lives, you are
:03:28. > :03:30.afraid... Which, it happened to many families, that it is going to take
:03:31. > :03:36.your Mama or your sister or your brother. It is really sad, because
:03:37. > :03:41.if you don't have your home now, what are you going to have? Being in
:03:42. > :03:45.the village, we were not equipped to live there. We're talking about
:03:46. > :03:55.taking the grain, pounding it into making flower, just everything,
:03:56. > :04:01.basic things, trying to handle the capital, that was something that was
:04:02. > :04:05.so new for me. Sleeping and waking up with a bug in your ear that you
:04:06. > :04:13.can't get out. We were just out there in nature. It was really
:04:14. > :04:17.surreal, but I would say, just overnight, going off and not being
:04:18. > :04:23.able to have your home, not being able to see your neighbours or your
:04:24. > :04:28.friends... And that was not like you come back after six months and
:04:29. > :04:32.everything was OK. We ended up looking for two and half weeks with
:04:33. > :04:36.thousands of others, the whole village of Wau, we were refugees
:04:37. > :04:40.trying to cross the village to find refuge in the Bush. We all had to go
:04:41. > :04:49.through this river and it was during the rainy season so the water was
:04:50. > :04:53.very high. It was very, very nerve-racking. And not knowing
:04:54. > :04:57.anything, then you start to think, even though you are nine years old,
:04:58. > :05:03.you still know if your parents are telling you the truth or semi
:05:04. > :05:08.truths, so I could see in their eyes, they were quite frightened.
:05:09. > :05:14.Finally your father made it to the capital of Sudan, Khartoum. We
:05:15. > :05:16.didn't go over all at once. It was extremely difficult because
:05:17. > :05:24.obviously there were no commercial flights. It was just the Boeing
:05:25. > :05:30.Hercules. Everyone tries to get in it and go to the city. And not
:05:31. > :05:37.everyone was able to. And you also have to sometimes bribe or pay, but
:05:38. > :05:41.we didn't have much money. How did you make it to Khartoum yourself? I
:05:42. > :05:49.ended up going with my Neighbour and pretending I was his child. And it
:05:50. > :05:53.was quite scary. Once I made it to London where I finally went to seek
:05:54. > :05:59.refuge and my older sister was there with her husband, and we were going
:06:00. > :06:05.to go back, once arriving in London, I was very shocked at first. How
:06:06. > :06:09.cold it was. I had my little South Sudan skirt on in my little talk and
:06:10. > :06:13.it was cold. Even though it was the beginning of the summer. But
:06:14. > :06:20.everything was so different. And then I didn't see my mother for two
:06:21. > :06:27.years. That was quite difficult. And then I had to go into school, and
:06:28. > :06:30.learn English, how to write. How was it settling into a different
:06:31. > :06:38.culture, learning a new language and a way of life? How did people
:06:39. > :06:43.receive you? Very, very challenging. Children at school are not very
:06:44. > :06:50.pleasant. They can be bullies. Midnight black and long skinny,
:06:51. > :06:54.lanky. I got called everything. Chicken legs. But at the same time,
:06:55. > :07:00.Oh my God!, I don't have to worry about, if it gets dark, having to
:07:01. > :07:04.run back in. I was nervous for quite some time because I was so used to
:07:05. > :07:11.being nervous and scared that somebody may break in or somebody
:07:12. > :07:16.may do something bad. So it was very, very challenging but I just
:07:17. > :07:24.threw myself into school. But I would say, I never forgot that smile
:07:25. > :07:31.from my dad and those words from my dad of not just be yourself, but get
:07:32. > :07:35.that education. Your father did not make it out of Khartoum. What do you
:07:36. > :07:51.think you would think about you today? It is very hard. What would
:07:52. > :07:59.he say about your success? Is his emotional -- it is emotional. I
:08:00. > :08:10.think he would be very happy. Just to see that... Oh my God! I don't
:08:11. > :08:21.know. My dad does this. I think he would be very proud. He would give
:08:22. > :08:26.me that same smile. And that is the reassurance that, you are
:08:27. > :08:31.beautiful, just as you are. And you are not going to let anybody degrade
:08:32. > :08:45.you. You are not going to let anybody bring you down is OK to be
:08:46. > :08:51.vulnerable -- and it is. But not naive because I am not naive. I know
:08:52. > :08:59.what I am doing and I am very proud. I am crying these tears of joy, but
:09:00. > :09:05.my dad would be very, very proud and say, I am so glad you are still
:09:06. > :09:12.yourself. It is like the most amazing thing, to have somebody that
:09:13. > :09:16.watches over you, you know? Is he the reason he kept going, you kept
:09:17. > :09:25.pushing when there were some the critics around you? Yeah. He is the
:09:26. > :09:30.guy that... I always say they don't make men like that anymore. All the
:09:31. > :09:36.way from South Sudan, here we are in New York, your new home. How did you
:09:37. > :09:44.make that journey? I was going back and forwards in London, obviously,
:09:45. > :09:50.after leaving South Sudan. To Khartoum. But it ended up working
:09:51. > :09:57.out for work because I was travelling tremendously, every week
:09:58. > :10:04.or two. And it is 6- seven -8 hours on a flight. That was really
:10:05. > :10:10.exhausting. So, for me it was very important to just base myself here
:10:11. > :10:20.and it gives me a chance to also be able to work. And it was very
:10:21. > :10:27.crucial in the beginning to make sure that I was consistent, because
:10:28. > :10:32.sometimes if you work and then you do very well and you leave, you come
:10:33. > :10:39.back and it may not be the same. Then you could just be a 1-hit
:10:40. > :10:45.wonder. I knew and I felt that whenever I was going to choose to do
:10:46. > :10:53.something and have a profession in it, I better take it seriously. I
:10:54. > :10:58.better work hard at it. So when I went to a park, a friend of mine
:10:59. > :11:03.from college said, come to this park and that is where the scout from
:11:04. > :11:06.models one, which was one of the most reputable modelling agencies in
:11:07. > :11:12.London at the time, was. And they were an amazing sort of family, type
:11:13. > :11:17.of people. They really nurtured the younger models and I almost quit
:11:18. > :11:23.because I didn't want to leave my schooling. I came to London and all
:11:24. > :11:27.the challenges we had... I didn't want to feel like I was just letting
:11:28. > :11:37.go of all the hard work at the time. This is my first time doing a
:11:38. > :11:42.Highline. And the other thing you have talked a lot about is being
:11:43. > :11:46.asked to fit into roles that have been designed for African girls and
:11:47. > :11:52.you do not want to be put in a box. You want to be seen as a model, like
:11:53. > :11:56.any other. And yet, it is the reason you were discovered in the park in
:11:57. > :12:00.the first place. It is your uniqueness, which you should be
:12:01. > :12:07.celebrating, not running away from. It should be celebrated but not...
:12:08. > :12:13.Not dissected, not pigeonholed, not make fun of, do you know what I
:12:14. > :12:17.mean? You wrote in your biography about being asked to pose on animal
:12:18. > :12:24.skins with a spear. What did that make you feel? For me, it was
:12:25. > :12:30.extremely important to not buy into the negativity. I was born in town
:12:31. > :12:35.and I don't carry spears around so why would I be taking pictures with
:12:36. > :12:41.Spears? You look raising now. I not going to look crazy. So you have to
:12:42. > :12:47.take that I get to somebody else. You need to have the management that
:12:48. > :12:51.can be able to have not just... See the highest integrity for you but
:12:52. > :12:55.they have integrity enough not to come to you with that nonsense,
:12:56. > :12:58.because I wasn't going to try to throw myself into somewhere where I
:12:59. > :13:02.was going to be exploited or something was going to happen to me.
:13:03. > :13:08.I don't want to be defined all over again and be taken away, like who I
:13:09. > :13:15.am. Like, no way. Either you take all of this or nothing. Do you see
:13:16. > :13:19.yourself as playing an important role in defining beauty? I think
:13:20. > :13:26.each woman as an individual has such an amazing opportunity to just be
:13:27. > :13:32.your self and celebrate all there is about yourself, which is including
:13:33. > :13:37.your roots, including everything about yourself, because that is what
:13:38. > :13:45.makes each person an individual. I had that in that it in me and I had
:13:46. > :13:53.so much joy that I thought it would be stupid to just quit and not just
:13:54. > :14:00.do this comment not be in this business, where, really, it
:14:01. > :14:05.celebrates women. You are constantly under pressure to be size zero, but
:14:06. > :14:09.you travel around the world where all sizes of women are all different
:14:10. > :14:12.heights. What do you make of all this change was Mac is this a new
:14:13. > :14:20.frontier? It is wonderful that we can say it
:14:21. > :14:28.is beautiful to celebrate if you are curvy. You go to your doctors, you
:14:29. > :14:32.do your checkup and you are healthy, therefore you are absolutely
:14:33. > :14:36.beautiful. But if you are big and you are unhealthy, that is not good.
:14:37. > :14:44.If you are thin and you are just depriving yourself of nutrition, I
:14:45. > :14:50.mean, you have to eat to nourish your body, you know? You don't have
:14:51. > :14:58.to live to eat, you have to eat so that you can live. So, that for me
:14:59. > :15:03.was very inconceivable. There are many women who look like you and
:15:04. > :15:07.me, but there are those who have bleached their skin. And so the
:15:08. > :15:12.concept of beauty is lighter skin, straight hair, which is not the
:15:13. > :15:18.natural African hair. I think that when something has been embedded for
:15:19. > :15:26.so long. Like, in my household, it is not even in our mental, we just
:15:27. > :15:34.actually cannot believe people put toxic things on their skin when
:15:35. > :15:37.there is like such a profound reason God made our tone and pigment, you
:15:38. > :15:42.know, because of where we come from and that is who we are, and it is
:15:43. > :15:48.beautiful. I think it is more the mind. You know, I always say, you
:15:49. > :15:57.are not bleaching your skin, you are bleaching your psychology. There is
:15:58. > :16:00.this time you are wearing a blonde wig with a fringe and on the catwalk
:16:01. > :16:08.you removed it and threw it to the crowd. What made you do it? That wig
:16:09. > :16:13.was not just me taking it off to make a scene, it was a time I was
:16:14. > :16:19.starting in fashion to work, and the one thing I told my agent was, if
:16:20. > :16:24.you are going to represent me, I am not going to be a gimmick and be in
:16:25. > :16:34.for a couple of seasons. You are going to take it all or leave it. In
:16:35. > :16:36.2011, South Sudan, your country, got independence, and there was so much
:16:37. > :16:42.celebration in the country and beyond. I remember you also said
:16:43. > :16:45.that, you know, there was relief that there was finally stability in
:16:46. > :16:51.South Sudan. Two years down the line, it descended again into war.
:16:52. > :16:58.What did it make you feel? When you look at the situation, how do you
:16:59. > :17:06.feel? I am very heartbroken. Very heartbreaking because every family,
:17:07. > :17:18.I mean, the war was such a bloodshed, and not just a bloodshed,
:17:19. > :17:23.it dispersed so many families. You know? And that is something that is
:17:24. > :17:29.not easy to take in when you know that, like, you just grew up
:17:30. > :17:34.together and you were to gather, but to destroy a family at a community
:17:35. > :17:38.is very hard to put back together -- together. But it can be put back
:17:39. > :17:44.together. So, after the referendum, I mean, it was just, there is no
:17:45. > :17:52.words to express when I heard the news and my family... Just everyone
:17:53. > :17:56.in South Sudan. It was so unreal. I didn't think that they would come
:17:57. > :18:01.while I am still alive. And before that day came you were caught in
:18:02. > :18:07.saying that the world had responded with rhetoric and not much else. And
:18:08. > :18:12.right now, South Sudan has gone back to fighting. Very sad. Do you feel
:18:13. > :18:17.the world is doing enough to support the country? At him or can be done.
:18:18. > :18:23.More can be done. Just the fact that the country itself is so rich in so
:18:24. > :18:29.many ways, the culture, the history, the land itself, the
:18:30. > :18:32.agriculture, we can eat off the land -- I think that. We have the natural
:18:33. > :18:37.resources. The people deserve it. It is enough for the people. So, why
:18:38. > :18:42.are we doing this? Why are we depriving the next generation lot of
:18:43. > :18:46.our young men, even though the women also fought the war, and I believe
:18:47. > :18:53.the women that took care of the children for the war too, because
:18:54. > :18:55.they are constantly picking up and running with children, not knowing
:18:56. > :19:06.what is the next term, and turbulence. Heartbreaking. Very,
:19:07. > :19:11.very heartbreaking. And I feel that the international community can do
:19:12. > :19:20.more. And not just in a ceasefire, but really, they have to be very --
:19:21. > :19:27.their have to be strict rules that have to be applied. You became the
:19:28. > :19:30.UN Refugee Agency's Goodwill Ambassador -- there. Why did you
:19:31. > :19:37.want to get involved, what motivated you to work with them? I got
:19:38. > :19:44.involved with UNHCR I would say just witnessing it first-hand. When the
:19:45. > :19:48.civil war broke out, they were the ones who were there and helping save
:19:49. > :19:56.lives, giving out the basic necessities. Those that a human
:19:57. > :20:04.being needs - shelter, food, safety, you know? UNHCR are the biggest
:20:05. > :20:10.Refugee Agency in the world and they are in places no one wants to go
:20:11. > :20:17.into. And I'm talking about a team that have their own family,
:20:18. > :20:22.children, mothers, fathers. So, it is just very humbling when you see
:20:23. > :20:29.such an organisation that are doing such work to try to help save lives.
:20:30. > :20:35.And they do. You have visited the people who have been displaced in
:20:36. > :20:45.South Sudan. Does it bother you that this is still happening after a time
:20:46. > :20:53.when they celebrated Independence? It was really quite something. I
:20:54. > :20:58.couldn't believe that the refugees, and especially the magnitude, before
:20:59. > :21:05.we landed down, to just see miles and miles and miles of refugee
:21:06. > :21:11.camps, that people that were coming from regions that the rain had just
:21:12. > :21:16., up to a level where they could live there any more, and it was, you
:21:17. > :21:22.know, the reigning season with the malaria and floods, with the
:21:23. > :21:25.diarrhoea, so it was challenges after challenges -- raining season.
:21:26. > :21:29.And when you look around the world there is a huge refugee crisis. You
:21:30. > :21:34.once said that refugees are people who have dignity. But what we are
:21:35. > :21:40.seeing isn't really that. Do they still have dignity, people dying in
:21:41. > :21:46.the seas as they try to escape hardship and war? That really was
:21:47. > :21:57.very painful. It was very painful to see, because we shouldn't be seeing
:21:58. > :22:03.children washed up, you know? Because their parents, their family,
:22:04. > :22:08.had absolutely nothing. So, it was desperation to try and get somewhere
:22:09. > :22:16.safe so that their little ones can be the next generation. And to know
:22:17. > :22:24.that another human being did that, made that situation, for the
:22:25. > :22:31.innocent children to be washed up, that for me, I couldn't believe it.
:22:32. > :22:35.This is the time to say enough. There are people who can look out
:22:36. > :22:38.for other human beings, other people who can speak up when something it
:22:39. > :22:48.is not right and say that this is wrong and something should be done.
:22:49. > :22:51.And I feel in 2015 we will see human beings, especially children,
:22:52. > :22:58.innocent children, tidying, you know, trying to cross the ocean,
:22:59. > :23:03.just trying to find safety - so much more has to be done to help them --
:23:04. > :23:08.dying. Because refugees are like me and you. As part of the BBC's 100
:23:09. > :23:13.Women season, we have asked you to nominate someone who inspires you.
:23:14. > :23:20.Who inspires you, Alek? Who inspires me? I would say there are so many
:23:21. > :23:25.women that inspire me, but one in particular. I like to really embrace
:23:26. > :23:35.of the young ones, because I was not too long ago a teenager. My niece,
:23:36. > :23:37.she is amazing, she just graduated from Cambridge, majoring in
:23:38. > :23:44.architecture. She put herself through school. And the energy she
:23:45. > :23:53.has, not just for South Sudan, but for the whole continent as Africa.
:23:54. > :23:56.Alek Wek, thank you for being one of our 100 Women. Thank you, it is very
:23:57. > :24:16.humbling. This brief spell
:24:17. > :24:24.of wintry weather has brought us