NEW DIRECTIONS

My name is Naw Shi. I was born in Burma, which is now called Myanmar. Both of my parents passed away when I was very young, so my three little siblings and I were left orphans. There was civil war in our country; it was very frightening. Life was not easy, so I moved to Thailand at a place called Maekakee where my aunt and siblings had already moved to. I stayed behind in our family home, only 12 years old, but I was always afraid. However in 1990, at only 15 years, I decided to flee during the night, and the Burmese soldiers chased me right up to the border. Then, I lived in Maekakee, Thailand, for 12 years and then moved into the Maelaoon refugee camp. We were very poor and often sick, constantly feeling threatened by the Burmese soldiers. Once there, I mostly worked as a midwife at the hospital in Maelaoon to provide for my family! That was always scary because of the soldiers who would wait for people to go to work and arrest them and put them in jail. Burmese people would often go missing. We constantly lived in fear and felt terrorized. We lived there for 4 years and then my family got sponsored by the Canadian government to move to Canada in September 2007.

It was a big decision, but for my kids to have a better future, I’m willing to do anything. I have six children in total; three were born in Thailand and three in Canada. After we came to Canada in September 2007, we stayed at the “Welcome house” for a bit and moved to Langley. The hardest things were learning English and providing for my family, but thankfully the government took care of us when we were still settling in Canada. I learned a little bit of English while taking an English class at New Directions. Now I’m currently working at New Directions as a cleaner. Canada does feel like home but I would like to visit my village one day when everything is safe. I want to thank all the settlement services for being there for my family.

Naw Shi.

“It is an honour to have Naw Shi share her story to help us understand the many steep hurdles and challenges she faced before finding her new home here in Langley. Since Naw Shi began to work at New Directions at the onset of Covid-19, and  has taken so much initiative by making double cloth masks for our staff and students. While she walks about, she has the chance to improve her own English workplace skills.  Everyone welcomes her warmly!  Her story will add to everyone’s better understanding of the Refugee experience this World Refugee Day 2021!”

Yvonne Hopp