Refugees are not vulnerable they just need help to play to their strengths, says Om Dhungel, a ‘Blacktown boy’ from Bhutan
- Read the rest of our series Welcome to Blacktown
When I meet Om Dhungel in a cafe near his home, he tells me about Merryn Howell. “She is my godmother,” he says, his eyes shining. “Every day I remember her.”
Howell (then Jones) was a skilled migrant placement officer. Dhungel was a refugee of Nepalese ancestry from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where he had been an engineer and a senior public servant at the Department of Telecommunications.
Om Dhungel in his home in Blacktown, Western Sydney.
Written by James Button; Photography by Carly Earl
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/15/inspiration-not-charity-how-refugees-from-bhutan-thrived-in-blacktown under the title “Inspiration, not charity: how refugees from Bhutan thrived in Blacktown”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
