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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, January 7, 2016 | 6 Spotlight by Julia Le Oakville Beaver Staff "Connected to your Community" One-time Vietnamese refugee knows what Syrians face T hao Choi arrived in Canada more than 35 years ago with just a bag -- big enough to t a set of clothes. Though it didn't hold much in the way of material things, it was lled with the now Oakville resident's hopes and dreams. Travelling with her father and three sisters, Choi was 15 when her family learned they'd be coming to Canada. After escaping Communist Vietnam and spending four and a half months of not knowing if they would ever be able to leave a Malaysian refugee camp, she remembers how "blessed and fortunate" they felt to have an opportunity at a better life. "We were so thrilled," said Choi, a Vietnamese boat person from My Tho as she recounted her own refugee experience with the Oakville Beaver. "We knew so little about Canada before we left, but we were thinking, wow, thank you Canada for being so generous and so humane. It made us feel human again; made us feel welcome." Eight escape attempts Before setting foot onto Canadian soil, and being joined by her mom and younger sister a few years later in Vancouver, B.C., Choi's family had made eight attempts to escape Communist Vietnam prior to achieving success in May 1980. One of those attempts had nearly ended with them drowning in the ocean. "I saw my whole life pass before my eyes," said Choi, recalling how her family and others eeing had been rescued by people on a ship from Poland -- and then how she had watched from her rescuers' ship as their own boat sank within seconds. Thao Choi everyone should have a chance at a better life. We only had one hope and we hung on to that hope, said Choi, reminiscing about her family's life before settling in Vancouver for ve years and then coming to Toronto. "That hope was to make it to another country because there was nothing else at home for us," she said. Dad sent to re-education camp "After the communists took over, my dad ended up, for four-and-ahalf months, in a re-education camp. It was almost like a concentration camp. It was supposed to be a week away from the family... we didn't know where he was, so when he came back we were really, really happy." Choi said she's met many other Vietnamese immigrants with similar stories, who have settled in the GTA. Many of them, too, are trying to pay it forward and help Syrian refugees. Tickets to the masquerade gala can be purchased by visiting www. masqueradecharitygala.eventbrite. com. For more information, email Ulana Gorgi at ulanagorgi@ymail.com. Oakville resident Thao Choi (second from left) is seen here with her father and three sisters in the Puala Bidong refugee camp in Malaysia in 1980. In the background are refugee huts covered with tarp. | submitted photos "I was given another chance in life. That made us try even harder and harder, and on the eighth time, we made it," she said. Memories ooded back Choi admitted her own memories ooded back the day she saw the photo of three-year-old Alan Kurdi's body, washed up on the shores of Turkey after his family had tried to ee Syria's civil war in September. In that moment, Choi said, she -- and others -- had to do something. Choi and a group of families in Oakville have formed Families in Deed, to help support Syrian refugees. The new group is hosting a masquerade gala whose proceeds will support Humanitarian Coalition and its efforts to provide basic needs for those currently living in refugee camps. The gala will feature live entertainment and dinner (including wine) on Jan. 9, 2016 at Le Dome Banquet Hall, 1173 North Service Rd. It will also offer a silent auction and photo booth. Tickets cost $115 for adults, $60 for youths aged nine to 19 years, and $50 for children eight years and under. For all money raised by Dec. 31, the Canadian government has agreed to match the group's efforts, dollar-fordollar. "Without the help of generous Canadians out there, I wouldn't be here," said Choi, who has been living in Oakville for 11 years with her husband Steve, daughter Isabelle and son John. Her way of giving back "It's my way of giving back to the community and to the people, who are in the same fate as I was before." Choi, a former IBM senior nancial advisor, said she also gives back in other ways because she remembers the daily struggle of not knowing where her next meal would come from and the help her family received so she could build a life in Canada. She volunteers at Kerr Street Mission (KSM) every two months, cooking meals for community members and is a director of project funds for Children of Vietnam Benevolent Foundation, a non-pro t organization based in Calmar, Alberta that raises money to provide Vietnamese children with a better education and basic needs. She's also part of an Oakville residents' group that's trying to sponsor a Syrian refugee family to come to Halton. Empathizing with what the Syrian refugees are going through, she said Volume 54 | Number 1 5046 Mainway, Unit 2, Burlington (905) 845-3824 Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. 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