Called: Helping others in a land of opportunity
Local
From refugee to a Knight of the Southern Cross, this humble hard-worker has always been guided by a deep sense of faith writes KATIE SPAIN.
When Dominic Hoan Nguyen boarded a boat as a refugee in 1982, he never could have envisaged a successful life in Australia. At the time, he was just grateful to be alive.
“I was 16 and came with my aunty,” he says. “My parents and my sister stayed behind.”
The journey across the ocean was extremely dangerous.
“The boat was 15 metres long, three to four metres wide and had 99 people on it,” he says.
“The sea was rough and the water came up into the boat on the way to Malaysia.”
Women and children were on the upper level, while young boys and men, including Dominic, were on the lower level.
“I thought I was going to die. We got very seasick.”
Dominic grew up in the countryside of South Vietnam’s Can Tho Province, where his family grew rice along the Mekong River.
“I grew up in a Catholic family. My grandparents, parents and relatives migrated from North to South in 1954, when the Geneva Agreement divided our country in two.”
Dominic left school early, in Year 6, to help on the farm. He worked hard until he was forced to leave Vietnam in early 1982, when the country was devastated by war and the communists ruled cruelly, taking revenge on the people of the South.
“Because they thought the people of the South were puppets, red capitalists,” he says.
“They arrested my father and my uncles and put them in prison, forced the people to leave their homes to go to new economic zones, to live in deserted places in the jungle; everyone was hungry, crying and miserable.”
The cruel acts forced people to flee across the border.
“Regardless of the danger to their lives, being captured, imprisoned, or being pirated,” Dominic says. “Many women were raped, and nearly half of the people who escaped across the border went missing and died at sea.”
Dominic looked for a way to escape the country. “Otherwise I would have had to join the army in Cambodia at that time,” he says. “Fortunately and with all arrangements in the hands of God, I was accepted into Australia.”
He has lived in Adelaide since.
At the time, he and his aunty arrived with zero English behind them.
“I didn’t know anything about what to do in the future. First, I had to learn English, so went to West Lakes High School as a Year 10 student because of my age.”
They were lonely times. Fortunately, the Vietnamese community’s Catholic Youth Groups and the Australian Scouts provided the connections he craved. He also participated in the Hope Choir at Mater Dei Woodville Church. “I still sing with them now…that’s nearly 40 years.”
Dominic’s Vietnamese accent remains strong and every word is upbeat and full of positivity.
It wasn’t always the case.
“My parents and relatives were very poor so during high school I worked on a farm picking apples on weekends, then worked at a Chinese restaurant in the evenings so that I could help them back in Vietnam.”
The determined teen went on to complete Year 12 and finished the first year of Electronic Engineering degree at Adelaide University. Unfortunately, he was forced to defer his studies in an attempt to bring his family to Australia.
“I needed a full-time job to sponsor my parents to come over.”
When Dominic sent the Visa application to his parents and sister in 1988, he didn’t receive the response he hoped for.
“Dad hid the form away. He didn’t want to come so they stayed in Vietnam,” he says. “I was upset about that, though they did come to visit over the years.”
Dominic never went back to university, instead worked in a factory before starting his own technology business Mobile Point, specialising in mobile phones.
On 29 December, 1991, Dominic married Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, who he met in 1989. “She is also part of the choir and is a very good singer; a soloist who sings in Vietnamese. We have been part of the choir for many years and it’s been very important. We are here today because of God.”
“My wife has had her own business, Adelaide Designer Cakes, for 30 years,” he says. “I help her do the baking every week.”
Dominic, now semi-retired, and Trang have two sons of whom they are proud.
“David Minh Nguyen is 30 years old and is currently a GP in Adelaide. My second son is Phillip Phi Nguyen who is 28 years old and is a dentist in Fulham Gardens. They used to be altar boys. I am very proud of them and thank God for their achievements.”
Dominic and his wife describe themselves as ordinary, hard-working, humble people.
“For about five years now, we have reduced it [work] a lot and only spend most of our time on apostolic work.”
They pay particular attention to those who need spiritual support in their life of faith.
“Currently, God still gives me the job to do,” he says. “As head of the pastoral board of the Vietnamese Martyrs Congregation, this is the third term. It has been about 10 years. It is God’s work; when God wants, I always obey, although I am very afraid of the job, but with my humble ability and health, I always try my best.”
Dominic is a pastoral councillor at Croydon Park and all his work and fundraising efforts for the parish have not gone unnoticed. In October, Dominic and Trang will be welcomed into the Knights of the Southern Cross.
“I refused them from the beginning but they kept asking,” he says. “I really understood this [serving God] is a great responsibility.”
After much prayer, they accepted the positions of Knight and Dame.
“I sit here in prayer, thanking God for the graces that God has given to my family and me over the past 60 years,” he says.
“I really do not know what else to do or how much more I can repay God, through the Church and the people around me that I often meet, especially at the Vietnamese Martyrs Community and Croydon Park Parish.”
