大象传媒

	Supermodel Alek Wek outside Bush House

Alek came to London as a refugee, here she was 鈥榮potted鈥� by a modelling agency and then there was no stopping her.

As a little girl, Alek told Heather Payton, life, before the civil war caused chaos, was like any normal childhood- time was spent having fun.

Alek has written a book about her experiences. In it her mother comes across as a strong influential woman. Alek comes from a family of nine children. She pays tribute to her mother for overcoming many obstacles- including coping with two wars in Sudan and bringing her family up in the conditions she had to live through.

"She really held together the family, even though my father was there with her too, but she was the one that was really making sure that there was food on the table.鈥�

The second Sudanese Civil War meant that by the time Alek was twelve life in her town:

鈥淚t went from this small town where we used to have fun and run around to a danger zone...it was no longer safe and that's when they [the police] called up on everybody in town to leave, because they couldn't protect us."

Alek eventually applied to come to London as a refugee and arrived with her younger sister, she left Sudan without her mother. Alek told Heather that this was really emotional- particularly as she couldn鈥檛 even speak to her mother as she didn鈥檛 have a telephone:

鈥淲e would write a letter and we wouldn鈥檛 get anything for so long so we didn鈥檛 even know how well they were doing- so coming to London and not speaking to her for two years straight was just such a blow.鈥�

Her mother eventually came to the UK but her father had already died.

So how did Alek become a Supermodel? When recounting the day when she was "discovered" by a talent spotter. Alek said:

鈥淵ou would be surprised- it doesn鈥檛 always happen that way- because at times you can be spotted and you could just fall off the face of the earth鈥� You could waste a lot of time trying to make it work.鈥�

The decision to try and peruse a modelling career was a tough one- Alek was going to college and her mother wasn鈥檛 too keen on her trying to model.

At one point to make a living Alek was cleaning toilets at the 大象传媒. Alek did this for almost a year. Speaking about this period in her life, Alek said that she didn鈥檛 like getting out of bed at 4 in the morning but the job taught her a lot of discipline-learning that:

鈥淵ou have to work extremely hard at what you do no matter what - nothing is glamorous, even being a 鈥渟upermodel.鈥� It鈥檚 not all glitz and glamour.鈥�

Three years ago Alek went back to Sudan. She visited her father鈥檚 grave. This was very emotional for her but it was something that she needed to do; the memoirs were something Alek says she needed to do to gain closure to move forward.

Another reason for her book is that Alek wanted to give something back to Sudan, to speak about the Sudanese people, the culture, to use the priceless voice that fashion has given her.