Sri Avinash Do Mission

Sri Avinash was born in 1973, into a fisherman family in Nha Trang, Vietnam. His birth name is Thanh Ha Do, and in Vietnamese 'Thanh Ha' means 'pure river'. He is the third youngest of nine children, with six sisters and two brothers.

When Sri Avinash was a child, his father would spend most of his time fishing at sea, only returning home for one week each month to sell his fish to support the large family. In order to supplement the family income during low fishing seasons, his mother travelled long distances to buy goods in large cities to trade in smaller towns.

When he was three years old, his mother passed away in a tragic car accident while travelling between cities for work. This caused a major emotional and financial shock for the whole family. Sri Avinash’s father had to work extra hard to make ends meet and the older siblings began taking care of the younger siblings.

When Sri Avinash was old enough to attend school, his sisters would walk him there. He did not enjoy school and often looked out of the window longing to be outside and to swim across the backwaters. On most mornings, Sri Avinash would wait behind the school gate watching his sister disappear out of sight, and then he'd excitedly go down to the backwaters to swim all day. He would dry his hair in the sun just before coming home, so that his sisters couldn't see he'd skipped school.

His sisters would often check by smelling his hair and asking him, “Did you swim in the backwater today?” Sri Avinash would get away with it most of the time by responding calmly, “No, I was at school. If you don’t believe me you can go and ask the school teacher.” He knew his sisters would never check, because they were so busy and would forget. Sri Avinash had a natural calmness and cheekiness from a young age.

At the age of eight his family was separated when his father planned an escape from the Vietnamese communist regime. His father took him and his older brother on the first trip, with the intention to return for a second trip with his remaining children.

They escaped by boat in the hope of migrating to a safer and more prosperous country. Landing in Malaysia five days later, they were taken to a refugee camp. Then on 21 January 1983, after one year on the refugee camp, Sri Avinash, his father and his brother arrived in Australia after being granted permanent residency....

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