14
Dec
2018
F
Cs
Feature
Cover
story
“I wore the same shoes
from year 7 to year 10.
We just couldn’t afford
to change them”
They moved to Sydney in 1991. Ms Nou’s
father practised from home, and the family all
slept in a single bedroom.
Ms Nou’s academic prowess earned her a
scholarship at a private girl’s school, although
the family were still “incredibly dirt poor”,
she says.
“In four years of going to that school, I
literally never changed my school shoes. I wore
the same shoes from year 7 to year 10. We just
couldn’t afford to change them,” she recalls.
But over time things improved.
Ms Nou now co-owns the Morris Care
& Advice Pharmacy in Oxley Park and is sole
proprietor of the Colyton Centre Pharmacy
in Colyton.
But she is acutely aware that not all refugees
have a doctor for a father and get to enjoy the
same opportunities she did.
So when comments about Nauru and
“queue jumper” asylum seekers started popping
up on the news feed of her pharmacy’s
Facebook page, she felt compelled to respond.
“It bothers me to hear things that are said
which I know to be blatantly false.”
Ms Nou received some backlash, with some
people online accusing her of hating Christians
and trying to “bring terrorists into the country”.
Some threatened to call the pharmacy “and let
your boss know what you are up to”.
“I’d say, ‘yes, go ahead, here is the phone
number, be my guest.’”
But Ms Nou does not confine her activism to
social media.
She now spends at least two hours a day
providing practical help as a national convenor
for Mums 4 Refugees, which sprang up from a
playgroup where the mums just wanted to do
some good.
They started by inviting parents from a
refugee background to come along and practise
their English.
The group now has more than 38,000
Facebook members. Working groups in capital
cities and regional areas provide practical help
to refugees, such as furniture and food vouchers
and information on public transport. Members
also lobby for political change, such as getting
kids on Nauru out of detention.
An important part of Ms Nou’s work is
spreading the message that refugees are not a
threat and supporting them is the best way to
promote harmony.
Her pharmacy has also donated to the
Season4Justice campaign run by Mums 4
Refugees over the last two Christmas–New Year
periods. Each campaign raised around $140,000
to help fund lawyers from law firm the National
Justice Project, who take legal action to get
the Federal Government to review decisions
involving detainees, says Ms Nou.
“It looks like we will be doing it a third
year running; the difference they have made is
truly invaluable.
“It’s amazing the number of cases that don’t
need to even go into court. Literally, you’ll be
at the door of the courthouse and they’ll give
in. But you have to take them that far and
that’s expensive.”
The case that helped drive the first
Season4Justice campaign, and one that
particularly affected Ms Nou, involved a boy
who broke his arm in detention. Legal action
was needed to secure his transport to Australia
to have plates inserted.
“A year later, his hand had become
deformed; he couldn’t flex fingers,” says
Ms Nou.
A second court case was necessary to ensure
the plates were removed, despite clinical practice
dictating this should be done around six months
after surgery.
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