Name: Simon Bairu
Birthdate: August 8, 1983
Hometown: Regina, SK CANADA

Simon Bairu has been a fighter almost from the day he arrived in Saskatchewan as a Saudi Arabian refugee. Born to an Eritrean father and an Ethiopian mother, the young Simon grew up watching his parents struggle and sacrifice for the benefit of their children. They were hardly affluent. His heritage and the circumstances of his parents' union certainly shaped his personality.

"There was a huge war between Eritrea and Ethiopia," Bairu says. "It would be like an Israeli and a Palestinian being married and living in Israel. Basically they had to flee the area. People on my mom's side of the family didn't like my dad and people on my dad's side didn't like my mom. They wanted to go to a place they could live and raise a family, so they moved to Riyadh Saudi Arabia. And then they had me and my sister there."

Being Christians in a Muslim country, they soon emigrated again, this time to Athens, Greece, where his father drove a taxi. Three years later and 6 month after simon's 4th birthday they moved on to Saskatchewan, to a community made up of First Nations people, immigrants and blue-collar workers.

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