Osman Ibrahim Shum was born in Keren, Eritrea, grew up in Asmara. While in Asmara University he came in contact with Moral Re-Armament (MRA) through friends from Britain who were invited to the country by Eritreans to promote the ideas of MRA. Osman loved sports and played basketball for the champion team in Asmara.
In 1968 he attended a leadership training course at Caux, Switzerland. 1969 joined the MRA Musical show 'Anything to Declare' and travelled with the group in South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.
In the seventies he lived and worked in Milan Italy, moved to Nigeria in 1976, worked for 14 years as a manager in Food Industry in northern Nigeria. He came to Canada with his family in 1990, where he retired and lived in Toronto with his wife and three children until his death in 2023.
