Jacob Thang was born in Burma, where he farmed corn, rice and other vegetables.
Life, he says, was “very terrible”, with corruption running rampant in the government.
He has come a long way, so much he has won a Wyndham Multicultural Entrepreneur Award.
His father was forced to flee Burma in 2003 due to “a problem with the government”.
His mother and siblings had no contact with the family’s patriarch for two years.
Authorities, he says, threatened to throw Jacob and his brother in jail if they did not disclose his father’s whereabouts.
In 2005, he made contact with his father, who was living in New Delhi, and Jacob and his family fled to join him.
In 2012, the family arrived in Australia as refugees.
Jacob attempted to get an education upon arriving, but financial issues and struggling to meet rental payments led him to cease studying.
After making contact with the Brotherhood of St Laurence, he undertook landscape training with Maribyrnong council.
He recently launched his own business, Jacob’s Garden Maintenance, and last month received Wyndham council’s Emerging Male Multicultural Entrepreneur of the Year award.
“I never thought I was going to win this,” he said. “It’s amazing – I’ve never achieved anything like this before in my life.”
Other winners were: Emerging female, Diksha Khanna (Amazeology Australia); established female, Ta Eh Paw Palay (Tau Meh Pa Kla); established male, Harpreet Singh Bedi (BDS Autocare).
