Dec
2018
13
F
Cs
Feature
Cover
story
From uncertain origins,
this Sydney pharmacist is
now devoting her time to
ensure other refugees get
the support they deserve
P
SEEKING JUSTICE: Veronica
Nou spends at least two hours a
day helping others as a national
convenor for Mums 4 Refugees.
HARMACIST Veronica Nou can’t say
for sure where she was born.
Her family were fleeing Cambodia after it
became clear their lives were in danger after the
Vietnamese occupation.
“Technically speaking, I don’t know when
or where I was born,” says the proprietor of two
Sydney pharmacies.
“I was born in the middle of my parents
trying to get away from Cambodia to Thailand
in 1980.”
By the time Ms Nou and her parents
fled, nearly every one of the 70 people in
her extended family had been killed by the
Khmer Rouge. On her mother’s side, only her
grandmother, an aunt and uncle survived.
Together they fled for a refugee camp
in Thailand.
Ms Nou’s father was a trainee neurosurgeon
who had to hide his identity during the Khmer
Rouge occupation, as the family were well-
known supporters of the previous government.
When the Vietnamese took over, he was
“lulled into a false sense of security” and
began training others to help treat the
overwhelming number of people in need
for urgent medical care.
His efforts were not appreciated by the
Vietnamese regime. Each member of her father’s
staff was assigned a soldier, who was ordered to
follow them around at all times. One day, the
soldiers received orders to execute their charges.
Ms Nou’s father was not there at the time,
and the family managed to flee.
They eventually reached Australia via New
Zealand, but they were living in abject poverty,
even after Ms Nou’s father successfully repeated
his medical training and became a GP.