In The Chair: President Carmel
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Wah Ler Paw – My Story
Wah’s ethnicity is Karen from Myanmar. The Karen people, largely from the Kayun State in south and south-east Myanmar constitute about 6.7% of Burmese people. The Karen National Union has waged war with the Burmese Government since 1949. An important 1988 uprising saw 200,000 Karen refugees escape from Myanmar. There are about 160,000 refugees in camps in Thailand. Wah’s family are some of the 50,000 refugees in the Mai La camp in Tak Province in Thailand. The conditions in the camp are primitive. The refugees have no ‘right to work’, although there is a type of market in the camp from goods that are scavenged from the mountains, and they construct their own houses. Schooling is primitive.
Wah was born in the camp in 1999. His father looked after the store supplies (largely from UNHCR) for the camp. His father died in 2006. Wah has 4 brothers and 2 sisters.
The family gained refugee status in 2006. They were accepted into Australia in 2007 and, after some difficulties and delays, Wah came to Australia in 2008. One brother, one sister and his Mother stayed behind. He lived with his brother (and the brother’s wife) in Logan, Qld where there were 10 in the house. He then moved to Woodridge in Qld where he attended Woodridge State High School. He was fortunate to have a teacher there who looked after him, even though he struggled with English.
In 2012 he returned to the refugee camp for a 1 month to visit family.
His sister moved to JBS in 2013, and he came to Narrandera to stay with her and attend Narrandera High School. Life was quite difficult because he had to look after his sister’s daughter (Amelia) after school and he still struggled with English. Despite this, he made some good friends at the school.
In 2015 his sister moved to Leeton, and he went to Leeton High from Year 10 to complete his Year 12. Again, some teachers were helpful with guidance in life as well as academically. After some reluctance, he worked casually on the Rice breeding Program at DPI. He decided to enrol at TAFE to do the Cert 2 and Cert 3 English classes. He is now employed with Rice Breeding Australia.
He married Karen, whom he has known for some time, and they now have a daughter (Athena).
. Wah acknowledged many people who had supported him in his journey. He also had a large team at the meeting to support him.
There was much discussion after his talk which was very entertaining and well presented. He noted that he has some aspirations, but did not divulge them. President Carmel thanked Wah on behalf of the club.
