An Interview With Maria Angelova
Humility as well. You do not always have to hang on your achievements or get caught talking about yourself. It helps me listen to other people tell me about their own struggle. Humanity and my lifestyle are also important to me. These are the things I value in my life and what I live by.
As a part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ger Duany.
A former child soldier in what is now South Sudan and refugee in Ethiopia and Kenya prior to resettling in the United States at age fifteen, Duany has spent his adult life advocating for displaced persons around the world. He has served as Goodwill Ambassador at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where he brought direct experience to advocacy and awareness efforts, as well as authored “Walk Towards the Rising Sun,” a best-selling autobiography about his experiences. He also played a leading role in the film, “The Good Life,” with actress Reese Witherspoon, has appeared frequently in the media about the refugee crisis, and has spoken globally about the issue at major events. While struggling to find inclusion in America and suffering from post traumatic stress due to his childhood, Duany turned to basketball. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from University of Bridgeport where he also played the sport.
Duany recently joined Asset Management Company, Newday Impact Investing, as part of the executive team. At Newday Ger is in charge of their Advocacy and Corporate Engagement and Stewardship program to help drive sustainability within its portfolio companies, and support the company’s corporate outreach and engagement.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Ihave made many transitions in my career, from being a basketball player to acting and modeling, to the literary world and then humanitarian. So, you can only imagine the mistakes that I’ve made along the way! They say that mistakes are the greatest teachers, but it doesn’t mean you have to go back to your past rather than trying to move forward and learn something. When I played basketball, my coaches taught me that you can’t just do whatever you want. You have to do things the right way. I tend to look at that as a lesson that I learned from my basketball career. My funniest mistake was during the General Assembly, when we had to go to the closing bell ceremony. I didn’t understand how intense the security was going to be. The elevator to the event was very crowded. I had to take the last one, so I was the last to arrive. By then, they had everyone picked to ring the bell. My colleague asked the security guard to let me in and she said no because I wasn’t already in the group. There was a huge paddling between my colleague and security. Finally, she let me in. Later on, I talked with her and she was very nice. They just have rules. But, I didn’t feel very confident that day. It was a funny story.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
Newday Impact has to help make drastic change when it comes to helping displaced people, and the challenges of displaced people with climate change, through investments. I am the man with the in-field experience, growing up in South Sudan and in small villages, experiencing war, living in five different refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, then coming to the Midwest in America. I can share these stories, and how impact investing can be a progressive way to help. My stories can really relate to the kids who live in a refugee camp or displaced persons who now live in the Midwest in America, or Paris or New York City. I have lived many different lives and can relate to a lot of people. It’s difficult for people to understand how we can guide advocacy to help people. That’s where Newday and I are making an impact.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Eight years ago, when I first started to write things on social media, I had a huge following. One of the kids wrote to me, he said he was from South Sudan and was living in a refugee camp, and that he was inspired to be a doctor. He said if I could help find someone to help him pay for school in Kenya, he would be a doctor and help a lot of people. It really stuck with me. One day, I was in Nairobi and this kid is really trying to hunt me down. I thought it was somebody that wanted to rob me. He kept asking me to stop, so I finally stopped and he said that I helped connect him with someone who helped him pay his school fees. That kid today studied medicine in Malaysia and he is a doctor. Now, we write to each other and he tells me that I inspire him. But, I say, no, it was you with the courage. I just happen to run my mouth on social media. Another story was with my friend Georgie Badiel, we used to do a lot of fashion shows in New York City a long time ago. One night at a restaurant with some of the high fashion people leading us, I decided to stand up and tell the fashion industry about my life story. Later, I told Georgie that I would be the President of my country one day and it would be an independent nation by 2011. What a man will tell a beautiful woman, I guess! She reminded me that I said this years later and I told her I said it because I had a crush on her, but it helped inspire her to do her water project in Burkina Faso, and she introduced me to Doug at Newday Impact, who I am doing work with now.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Well, there are many things. In 2017, I went to Delhi then to a town called Dharma Shala to meet a spiritual leader. What I learned from him was that simplicity, patience and compassion are how to approach social issues. These three things could be a way for communities, societies and politicians to really engage themselves, by having a simple way of communicating, being patient, and really embracing people. So, I tend to use these three things a lot for myself. It has become words that I really treasure myself. I think politicians really need to do the same.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think this might help people?
The exciting project is getting the program off the ground with Newday for internationally displaced people, refugees and climate change, through governance and investment from investors. The most important thing for me right now is how to work closely with Newday on this. I also came to Sudan recently to make a movie about my country split into two different states, Sudan and South Sudan. There is a huge human and human rights element in it, and I think the movie will take off and create more conversation to help people.
What you are doing is not easy. What inspires you to keep moving forward?
People keep me moving forward. I love people, and I love the human race. I’ve learned so many things from people, while I’m far away from my village, and when I moved to New York. I thought I was going to pursue acting and fashions and all that good stuff. But, soon I realized that I walked into a culture of people from all over the world, and they embrace me so much. I made a community for myself, whether it was in Harlem or Brooklyn or Manhattan with people I will cherish for the rest of my time here on earth. People keep me going because I learn so much from them.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
Faith, because faith has always helped me to see things for what they can become. My health is also very important to me, to take care of myself and not break down. Another is love. I love caring for the human race. It is very important to me. I have taken care of people, from my own mother who died from colon cancer, to people during COVID-19. If I had to do something other than advocacy, I would be a caretaker. Respect is another. I think respect goes a long way. If sometimes things go my way, and other times they go someone else’s way, I don’t have to resent them and they don’t have to resent me. We can decide to respect each other. Humility as well. You do not always have to hang on your achievements or get caught talking about yourself. It helps me listen to other people tell me about their own struggle. Humanity and my lifestyle are also important to me. These are the things I value in my life and what I live by.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
We can be impactful by improving social inclusion. I really believe in accountability and governance. I know these types of things really require serious enlightenment and having capacity-building mechanisms in place. As a former refugee myself and later a citizen in America, I didn’t know anything about governance. It is the same with a huge number of people, and that’s a problem. I think we have to educate ourselves and people about government, what the government stands for, what they should expect from the government and how they can help government efforts, like what’s going on in South Sudan. People don’t understand a lot of things in that order. We can help marginalized communities around the world this way. We also have to utilize the local structures sometimes, not organizations. People go to my villages sometimes and disregard the local structure and community. This is not really helpful. We should focus on how to really respect local people, structure and leadership, so that the focus is to bring them together and give them an open chance to communicate so that they can get a sense of inclusion. When we show people that they matter, they want to engage. Influence is highly dependent on who we are talking about being influenced. My goal has always been to be part of a change, a shift in attitude that brings about a world in which every single person on this planet has some power of self-determination in their own country, on their homelands. Too many people at this moment are suffering the same fate as I did as a child, being displaced by a combination of a total lack of resources, education, and humane investment from the developed countries that are responsible for the destabilizing effects of colonization that continue to resonate through many regions in Africa and the global south. I believe such a world is possible. If I didn’t I would not have partnered with Newday Impact in their mission to bring about such a change. That hope is in fact why I’m here now.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Make yourself a home wherever you can. The whole world is your own home. There’s no one home that you can come home to, that belongs to you. I try to make myself at home wherever I am or can be.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I follow a guy named Dr. DE Huberman. He’s a professor at Stanford. He had a great podcast about neuroscience. He always talks about post traumatic stress disorder. When I first came to the United States, PTSD was something that I dealt with, because I used to be a child soldier during our previous Civil War, and I didn’t know how to deal with the stress from it. It is why I went to the University of Bridgeport to study psychology. I find it very interesting to know. I would ask him some of the questions I am wrestling with about PTSD. The second would be Paul Kagame. I’d like to know how he really manage a country that went to genocide in 1994, where 800,000 people were killed in less than three months. I would ask how he managed that, and the country has been quiet for almost thirty years now. That would be an interesting character to really know.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
My social media is GerDuany for Instagram and Facebook, and my website https://www.gerduany.com/
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.