sport news Wallabies star Samu Kerevi's mission to save the family name after fleeing a ... trends now
When Samu Kerevi arrived in Brisbane as a seven-year-old, his first priority was survival.
He was granted an asylum visa by the government and a local charity supplied him with clean clothes.
The journey was dangerous. He fled a life of crime in Fiji — via a coup d’etat in the Solomon Islands — after his cousins and uncles were sent to prison for a bank robbery.
When Samu Kerevi (left) arrived in Brisbane as a seven-year-old, his first priority was survival
He fled a life of crime in Fiji after his cousins and uncles were sent to prison for a bank robbery
Now, 21 years later, he is on a mission to write a more positive chapter in the family story.
‘I had a tough upbringing,’ says Australia’s star centre. ‘My mum had us pre-wedlock, young, 19 or 20. It was a difficult situation in terms of my father’s family.
'They weren’t in the best area and there was a lot of crime. A lot of my older cousins are in jail. My uncles have been in jail for 15-plus years.
‘They’re all out now and they’ve changed their lives. I’ve got a cousin who has just come out from a 14-year stint and I want to be there when he comes home.
'They tell me about the things that used to go on. I couldn’t believe it. It’s like things out of a movie. Bank robberies, assaults...
Now, 21 years later, he is on a mission to write a more positive chapter in the family story
‘My grandmother’s sister’s family brought me up. My grandfather worked for the Commonwealth and he was posted in the Solomon Islands. My family couldn’t support me and my two brothers.
'My mother gave me up knowing I would lose a lot of time with my brothers. The coup happened in 1999 or 2000 so we had to flee the Solomon Islands. A military cargo plane picked us up.
‘We were actually on the way to New Zealand but the plane stopped in Australia, I got a bridging visa for asylum
