Our Faces, Our Stories - Stockland

My storyHowra Al-BadriSuccess is the result ofthe challenge....not theresult of our despair atthe first hurdle we face.Result of the efforts made andthe patience we showed. Whata wonderful feeling, after this weget our desire, after all this!My name is Howra Al-Badri andmy name in my first languagemeans “Big Eyes”. I was born inIran on 21 July 1994. I live withmy parents who are Iraqi born,along with my two sisters andbrother.My family lived in Iran for sevenyears. Life in Iran was hard forus because my parents are Iraqis.The Iranian Governmentdidn’t allow my father to workand if we stayed in Iran I wouldnot have been able to continuemy education at university afterfinishing school. These were therules for all the Iraqi people livingin Iran. So my parents decided toleave Iran and come to Australiaby ship.In 2001, my familyleft Iran and went toMalaysia by aeroplanefor two weeks.I had a fantastic timewith my family. Wewent to a huge shopcalled KLCC, andwent to the zoo. Afterthat we went toIndonesia on a smallship, it was a verylong and scary journey.When we arrived inIndonesia, we hadto travel by ship toreach Australia. Wetravelled alongside200 other people. Itwas the most frighteningjourney of mylife.When we reachedAustralian waters, we couldn’tleave the ship. For fifteen dayswe were inside the ship on theocean, waiting for the government’sdecision. After a longwait, the government decided tosend us back to Indonesia. All ofthe people in the ship were sadand some men tried to kill themselves.This was a very frighteningtime for me, but I can stillremember those events, eventhough I was only seven yearsold.We returned to Indonesia andlived there for seven years. Sevenyears of both fun and sadevents, and seven years withoutformal schooling. My parents educatedme from home, it was likegoing to school every day, I hadto take out my books, pens andlearn. That’s how I learnt how tospeak, read and write in my language,Arabic.Even though I wasn’t born in Iraq,I’m proud that my nationality isIraqi.It was like a dream come truewhen we finally left Indonesiaand came to Australia. On 29May 2009, my family arrived inBrisbane, Australia. At first it washard because everything wasdifferent. I faced problems withthe language because I couldn’tunderstand English, but I washappy at the same time becauseI could finally study and achievemy goals.After two weeks, I went to an IntensiveEnglish Centre. My sisterand I felt lonely at first becausewe had no friends, but after afew days we found some friendsto talk and sit with. After ninemonths, I graduated from the IntensiveEnglish Centre and wentto Year 9 in high school.I really loved Brisbane and thelife there, but my parents decidedto leave Brisbane and moveto Sydney. It was hard for me toleave my school and friends.When I arrived in Sydney, I didnot face any problems with thelanguage because I had alreadystudied English in Brisbane, butthe problem was that I didn’t havefriends in Sydney.I then enrolled in the IntensiveEnglish Centre and studied forone term only. After that I went toYear 10 Access class at FairfieldHigh School.Now, I amstudying in aYear 10 mainstreamclass.I wish to finishschool andachieve mygoals.5