Adolescence can be a difficult time for teenagers. But those years were particularly more difficult for Mikhara Ramsing.
Mikhara migrated to Australia with her parents, two younger sisters and a brother from Durban, South Africa at the age of 14 and it wasn’t long before she realised she was gay.
“I found it difficult to accept at first. I did not see other gay Indian people around me and in particular gay Indian women,” she told SBS Hindi about her time in Albury-Wodonga.
As a young migrant gay woman with no role model around, Mikhara experienced a huge conflict between her cultural and sexual identity.
“I was constantly told that being gay was a western concept and that I was losing my dharma (duty), my connection to Indian culture and it was terrifying, especially as a teenager when you are trying to figure out your identity and you are told that you are losing your family identity.
“It reinforced this notion that I couldn’t be Indian and gay. It was very confronting and it took me many years to sit and reflect on my own identity before I felt comfortable and safe enough to bring my parents in,” she says.
When she told her parents at first, they were not comfortable with it but gradually, with the support of her friends, her family accepted her.
“I am really proud of my parents that we got to a point where I now have a home full of love and acceptance,” Ms Ramsing tells SBS Hindi.
Having gone through the turmoil herself and emerging loved and confident, Mikhara is now using the power of storytelling to changes lives.
Mikhara Ramsing with Shelley Argent, National Spokesperson for PFLAG Australia Source: Ethnic LGBT+
“While growing up, I had no representation around me.
“I wanted to share my story, to show that to other young people, who are going through what I went through, that there is hope and these are the strategies I used.
“And I wanted to showcase similar stories of other culturally diverse people. That is how Ethnic LGBT+, an online platform providing support for culturally and linguistically diverse LGBTIQA+ communities was formed,” she says.
“It literally started in my kitchen, where I asked for my parents’ permission to share our story and then looked up the internet on how to build a website,” she says.
Today Ethnic LGBT+ is a national website that provides a safe place for members of the culturally and linguistically diverse LGBTIQA+ communities to share their stories.
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Two years ago, Mikhara, a qualified Law graduate, quit her job at Deloitte in Sydney and moved to Northern Rivers, a regional area in the New South Wales to share her stories and conduct workshops for youth to learn entrepreneurship skills.
“When we immigrated to Australia, we lived in Albury-Wodonga and it was a wonderful introduction to Australian culture and I loved living regionally. I knew the unique challenges that young people face in regional towns and I knew my impact would be better served in those sorts of communities.
“There is an appalling rate of suicide in young people in regional areas and I wanted to make a difference there. I took the leap two years ago because I wanted to work with high schoolers and young people and show them they had many opportunities post-school and how could they feel more connected to their life.
“I found that many students were not able to access these workshops I was hosting even when it was just $5 per head so I started selling chai to fund these workshops. So that’s how Ground Chai started,” she tells about her second social enterprise.
Her enterprise ‘Ground Chai’ serves a cuppa of ‘chai’ (tea) where the funds are used for preventing youth hunger, homelessness and suicide in rural and regional Australia.
“I learnt the art of making chai from my grandmother and the seed of social enterprise was instilled in me at a very young age by my grandfather,” she says.
“My grandfather was a businessman in South Africa and it was there where the seed was planted where I saw him using his business for good.
“Through his various businesses, he was able to offer spaces to the Indian community under the apartheid era to come together and learn and he also sponsored children through school and universities. So what is today called social enterprise was planted in me from a very young age.”
“It is something that I always wanted to do. Business for good,” she says.
It has been quite a journey for this not-yet-thirty social entrepreneur.
Source: Supplied
In October, Mikhara was named on the Australian Financial Review’s 2019 100 Women of Influence list.
“I was away, working in rural towns of Western Queensland and had no access to the internet when it was announced. I actually learnt of it two days later when I jumped on my Instagram and saw people had tagged me and it was such a wonderful way to find out where friends and family were showing support. It was very humbling,” she says.
“It caused me to pause and reflect on all the influential women in my life. It was a beautiful moment thinking about my grandparents, my mom, my sisters and all my female friends who have influenced me. It was a moment of great gratitude.”
