Ku Htee is a young woman who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the jungles of Thailand after her parents fled from Myanmar.
Her family is Karen, an ethnically diverse group of peoples from the mountainous South East of Myanmar. Targeted by the Burmese military, many thousands have fled Myanmar to Thailand in search of safety.
Ku Htee spent the first fifteen years of her life living in a refugee camp.
Our house was made of bamboo, we didn’t have access to wood, and the roof was made of leaves.
With only the food they could grow themselves and minimal rations, they often went hungry.
At the age of fifteen Ku Htee and her family were able to move to Australia.
Now, just seven years later Ku Htee works for Bendigo Community Health Services translating and helping newly arrived refugees and others in the Karen community understand the health system.
She has recently been recognised as a Young Leader by the Victorian Multicultural Commission, has been given a Youthrive scholarship to further her studies, and her story was the local winner of the ABC Haywire storytelling competition.
I'm happy. I'm glad to call Australia home. Because I’m very safe and sound in here.
On the SBS podcast New Home, hear from migrant and refugee women who are quietly building new lives in regional Australia, making friends, and finding community.
Follow New Home in the SBS Radio app, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.
New Home is presented by Alison Hanly, and produced by Alison Hanly and Ginny Tan.
Note: In this episode we refer to Bendigo Health instead of Bendigo Community Health Services (BCHS). These are two separate organisations, Ku Htee works for BCHS.
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