MIXIT in Tāmaki Makarau uses drama and dance to help young refugees gain confidence and in this Here Now episode, Phil Vine talks to former graduate Izadine Ahmed Abdallah about his story.

Izadine Ahmed Abdallah was 13 and in a refugee camp in Chad when he learnt that his family had been offered a refugee placement in New Zealand, a country he'd never heard of.

Now 24, Izzy has found purpose and fulfilment by helping a new generation of displaced people find their feet and their voices at MIXIT, a dance and drama school in New Lynn, Auckland.

"The youth grow too fast, so they forget the youth side. So, my job, or our job, is making sure the youth don't lose their youth side, they can still grow slowly.

"And they can be as creative as they want."

Izzy knows what it's like to grow up quickly. At the age of 11 he left his family at the refugee camp where they were living, and walked to the neighbouring country of Cameroon.

His father had died from illness and Izzy couldn't bear to stay at the camp.

"He was like my best friend. When he passed away. I just didn't feel like being in that area. The best way was like me leaving the place or me committing suicide.

"Because I didn't feel like I belonged there. I didn't feel like I was alive. So, I decided to go to another place."

Not wanting to visit his deep sadness on his family, he took himself off for two years.

"And there's no form to communicate by the way, you know, they didn't know, my family don't know where I'm at. But I know where they are.

"I left when I was 11. I came back when I was 13."

When Izzy returned, he learned his family had been offered a refugee placement in New Zealand, a country he'd never heard of.

Touching down in Tāmaki Makaurau in the middle of the night, Izzy and his four siblings got something of a fright.

"So, we landed we had people coming and do a haka, we were surprised, because we've never seen this before.

"It was scary because we were kids at that time. We were hiding behind our mums. And we were like, what? What is this? What have we got ourselves into?"

New Zealand takes only 1500 refugees a year and according to the last census there are 231 Sudanese - mainly from the South. Izzy's family are the only people from Darfur in West Sudan.

So, does that make it a bit more difficult?

"The language that we speak is called Masalit, in this country, no one speaks it."

It wasn't until he got to New Zealand, Izzy says, that people pointed out the colour of his skin…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details