Vietnamese community knows what it's like to be a refugee. That's why they're still helping others

Updated

If there's one thing Hanh Do feared more than the pirates who terrorised refugees fleeing post-war Vietnam, it was the violent storms that threatened to smash his fragile boat to pieces.

In 1981, with his wife and brother-in-law by his side, Mr Do crammed into an 11-metre vessel alongside 53 other refugees headed for Malaysia.

The first two days were smooth sailing; a time to reflect with deep sadness at having to leave their homeland and families forever.

But on the third night the journey's horror story began.

"The Thai pirates attacked us three times and so basically they took everything," Mr Do said.

"After the third pirate attack, we had nothing. No compass, no food. Drinks were limited to one cup per person per day. We were exhausted, scared, desperate and lost."

And then a wild storm whipped up waves as tall as buildings that towered over the dangerously overcrowded boat.

"We were at the mercy of God," Mr Do said.

"With Thai pirates they can terrorise you, they can make you hurt, but they can't kill everyone, but with a storm, if the storm broke the boat then we all die."

After six nights at sea they finally arrived at Malaysia's Pulau Bidong, a previously uninhabited island which by April 1981 was home to thousands of refugees.

As they reached the beach, starving, dehydrated and thoroughly relieved, the group — more than half of whom were women and children — barely had the energy to walk.

"It's like a miracle that we survived and we got through that," Mr Do said.

Experience as a refugee behind desire to 'give back'

Traumatic stories like his are not unusual among Australia's Vietnamese community, and it has bred a sense of sympathy and understanding for other refugees.

Mr Do's son, Andrew, is vice-president of the Vietnamese Community in Australia, a group that has raised around $2 million for various charities in the past 10 years.

This year, their goal is to raise $100,000 for the Australia for UNHCR's Rohingya emergency appeal.

After just one event — a concert at the Collingwood Town Hall — their tally was $88,000.

"A lot of the Vietnamese businesses and the community in general were feeling very generous that night," Andrew Do said.

He hopes a walkathon and cultural festival in Melbourne's Princes Park this Saturday will see them surpass their target.

"Many people in the Vietnamese community have first-hand knowledge of what it means to be a refugee. We know how it feels to flee your home country in fear of violence and persecution.

"I think it's a Vietnamese cultural thing that we feel a great sense of gratitude and also responsibility to give back."

About 720,000 Rohingya refugees are currently sheltering in Bangladesh after fleeing outbreaks of extreme violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State in August last year.

Tens of thousands live in flimsy shelters at risk of landslides and flooding in the monsoon season.

Event a chance to unite all minority groups

But more than just raising money, this weekend's event hopes to unite some of Melbourne's other refugee populations.

Together with the Eritrean, Jewish, Burmese and Rohingya communities, the walkathon will be a show of solidarity for all minority groups.

Mr Do, who was born in Australia, said the Vietnamese community was now hailed as a role model for other migrant communities — but it wasn't always the case.

"For us we can use a lot of that experience that we've had, a lot of that knowledge that we've gained from being here for 40 years, to really help other communities who are just recently migrating to Australia and making their journey a lot easier," he said.

"It's not just about making our community strong and making our people well-represented, but it's also about making sure that other communities who are facing the same difficulties and same journeys that we did when we were settling in to Australia, that we do what we can to make that journey a little bit easier for them."

He said the event was also a chance to spread a message of solidarity among migrant communities.

"There's been a lot of, I guess, media about African gangs and targeting specific minority communities, and that happened to our community decades ago.

"We wanted to invite all these different communities together ... and show that if we work together, we are stronger together."

Topics: refugees, immigration, multiculturalism, charities-and-community-organisations, community-and-multicultural-festivals, people, human-interest, community-and-society, melbourne-3000

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