Paying it FORWARD

Ailan Tran, Perth, WA

Walking into the kitchen one day, I overheard a conversation between my mum, Mai, and dad, Khuyenh.

I was only eight, but could tell it was serious.

‘We have a rice shortage,’ Mum said.

‘But I don’t get paid until next week,’ Dad replied.

I’d been aged three or four when Mum, Dad, my sister Ai Binh, brother Xuan, along with my extended family, left Vietnam on a small boat in 1979, finally landing in Malaysia.

After nine months in a detention centre,