My name is Abdi Omar. I was born in Somalia. I lived with my family since I grew up. When I was young I used to play with my next door neighbours. Everyone came out at night to have a chat at about 10:30. They would go into their houses and go to sleep.

The most violent thing that I have seen was the war in my country. The war started around the city on a Sunday afternoon. All the factories were burned and a lot of people were killed and tortured. Everyone was running and stepping on corpses.

In 1990 there was a war in Somalia. My Dad was in Saudi Arabia and we told him to not come to Somalia. All our family was going to the country, where my grandfather lived. We lived there for six months and after we went back to the city. My Dad came to Somalia and the war was still going on and on. In 1992 we left Somalia and went to Kenya.

Before the war, life was peaceful. In the morning every kid used to go to the Mosque to learn the Koran. Life was very peaceful.

The army burnt the city and suburbs down, killing people and stealing everything. We were lucky because in the suburb that I used to live, no-one had started fighting with their weapons. No-one had any sort of weapons.

Many families had been destroyed. Their homes collapsed and their children tortured and killed. Somalia was getting worse and worse. Most people went overseas and spread all over the world. My family went to Kenya and seven months later, we came to Australia in 1993. My uncle was in Australia with his family.