A refugee for 8 years, Shams Erfan is now the 2022 GBC PEN Writer-in-Residence.

 

He lived the life of a refugee, now he shares his stories with the George Brown College (GBC) community.

Shams Erfan arrived in Canada this year after leaving his country Afghanistan eight years ago. Less than 6 months after arriving, he was chosen as the 2022 PEN Writer-in-Residence (WIR) at GBC.

GBC has partnered on the residency program with PEN Canada since 2004 and hires one person every academic year as the Writer-in-Residence.

Paula Applebaum, a professor, serves the position of liaison to the college’s PEN WIR program.

“We’ve hosted writers from over a dozen countries around the world. PEN writers participate in classroom sessions and college events to raise awareness about imprisoned writers internationally, and explore issues around freedom of expression,” Applebaum said.  “This program can enhance whatever we’re teaching in the classroom, across disciplines. It’s important that we address all elements of students’ development and growth, and this is one way to do that.”

Erfan worked as an English teacher in Afghanistan before fleeing in late 2014 due to the worsening situation there. He lived in various refugee camps and detention centers in Indonesia, where he experienced living in the worst of conditions and being victim to the glaring holes in the system.

During his time at the detention center, he bartered the rations he got for pens and paper from the outside world to teach English to his fellow detainees. He also somehow got himself a phone inside the center and started writing about what he was experiencing and posted it online.

“Through writing and reporting on the harsh and inhuman living situation of refugees caught in the detention system, I connected with advocates,” said Erfan. “If it was not for the power of writing. I wouldn’t have survived the detention center. Writing helped me tell my story.”

People around the world read his stories, even more widely after a chance encounter with a BBC journalist. A Canadian family connected with him through his work and eventually privately sponsored him to move to Canada.

Erfan’s work has helped people see into the cracks of the system refugees face in Indonesia and made them question the system. Here at GBC, he has an impact on students, especially newcomers to Canada or those who share a similar lived experience.

“Shams has had a profound effect on students in the classroom. Just this morning he was in my communications classroom and students were very eager to ask him questions, to clarify certain parts of his presentation and even to ask for advice. They can see themselves in his story,” Applebaum said.

Erfan is appreciative of the opportunity and resources he has with the residency program and here in Canada.

“A country where you’re respected, where your fundamental human rights are not violated, and you have an identity. People aren’t chasing you; you don’t have to go hungry at night. You have access to work, to education. I did not have all this for nearly a decade in my life.”

At the same time, Erfan knows that many of his fellow detainees are still suffering. His dream is to study law to make a real impact on the justice systems of the world.

“I’m so glad that I have these resources and I use that to advocate for other people,” he says.

The GBC PEN WIR program brings in people like Erfan at the end of August each year to share their lived experiences as writers coming from difficult parts of the world, in the GBC classrooms.
They are available to any teaching faculty as a resource to make use of in classrooms, in-person or virtual, to enhance learning.