Calgary community rallies to confront series of heartbreaking deaths

Don’t look at the camera. Yeah. Toy Bommet was 21 when she collapsed at a friend’s house in November. She was set on a bed to rest and found dead hours later standing in front of the townhouse where she died. The family says they don’t know what caused her dead. Police labeled the design and suspicious and the medical examiner stayed running tests for toxicology report. It is very shock and horrible to hear her untimely days of my lovely daughters Nyan toy. She’s very smart, humble, human being with a good heart. She was my best friend, my sister and my first daughter. She was lovely, kind, hard working young lady. The local S Sudanese community has about 17,000 people. Neil Witleg is a counselor with the community nonprofits Kumkan. He says they have seen 30 to 50 deaths in the last two decades. He and Daniel started meeting with families and young adults this year. Now says the problem is getting worse, especially with gun violence and drug use. But questions remain. Where did they get the drugs? Why? And did they know what they took? Families don’t know. Now, says Parent, are caught in limbo and police investigations have not helped. He hopes the conversation will help the community make sense of the trauma and found solutions. The the project goal is to see young people succeed and come out of this situation, whereby they can be able to look after one another, making sure they are doing something positive for themselves and for the community. Martha Todd lost her daughter, narrowed well, moved in February last year. She was 32. She collapsed at a friend’s house and died on the way to the hospital. Like this past year, I believe. So there’s four or five kids who’ve been die. When we asked them, oh, we’re going to do that Biopsy after biopsy, come. We don’t know. We don’t know. When Daniel told me that. Are you willing to Share your story? I said yes, because my daughter, she’s already gone. But I want more for rest of my community and my own children. Police say there was no evidence of violence in our daughter’s death and last month the medical examiner call her with the results. They say it was an overdose at the Yes Center. Children learn dance, play basketball and find pride in who they are. One of the coordinator says Losing so many friends and people they have grown up with is a traumatic experience. He wants to see our community move forward. Sure, we can discuss these things, but I don’t want that to be our complete identity. Like, I hope that we can get to the point where, like, we can grow from this and flourish and move forward as a community rather than go around in circles about all this. I’ve seen these problems. Anyone who wants to get involved with the community conversation is invited to contact Kumkan through their website. For CBC Calgary, I’m Nyakim Quid.