Meet Jolie Phuong

We don't know the future.

We leave it to fate.

All I saw is just the ocean.

And at the horizon, it's just the ocean meets the sky.

And that's all I saw.

Is there land, somewhere there? I'm not sure.

However, we escaped Vietnam

with a deep wish that

we will be free.

I could never imagine how that freedom

would be.

You face danger, you don't know what's waiting for you.

But you just believe that somewhere within the horizon

there will be freedom waiting for you.

My name is Jolie Phuong Hoang

I am currently a math professor at Niagara College.

I am also an author, I published two books.

The first book is an award winning Anchorless, 

and the second book is coming out soon in,

actually in a couple of days.

And I have been teaching at Niagara College

for 25 years already.

In fact my Father planned three escapes.

The first one was a failure.

The second one, I escaped Vietnam with my siblings,

five of us all together, and my

sister-in-law.

So, actually seven of us all together.

Five siblings, myself, my sister-in-law, seven of us

on the second trip to escape Vietnam.

On the boat that my father actually built,

and he planned that trip for three years.

We survived nine days at sea, and we landed in Indonesia.

In Indonesia we were put in a refugee camp

named Galang, and we stayed there for 14 months.

We were sponsored by the Hamilton Mountain Fund

to help the boat people.

Founded by Judy and John Smith.

That's how we got to Canada.

We were rejected by Canadian, the American

the Australian delegation.

Because there was seven of us all together

we didn't fit into the category of being accepted to

to go to the third country.

Not until John Smith sent us a postcard saying that

the Hamilton Mountain Fund would sponsor seven of us

over to Canada, to Hamilton.

So that 's how I landed in Hamilton.

A year after I stay in Hamilton, in 1985

my father, my mother, and my three younger siblings

arranged another escape from Vietnam.

So that's the third escape trip.

So, during that trip my father passed away,

my younger sister passed away.

The book that I wrote has the title called,

Three Funerals for my Father.

Imagine one person dies and has three funerals.

So that is quite a history of what he had to go through.

In order to put all of his children on to the boat

and landed in the refugee camp.

And from the refugee camp came to Hamilton

to establish a new life.

I was sponsored by the Hamilton Mountain Fund

to help the boat people.

It's a charity that consists of a lot of church members.

I felt home because the people, the member of the charity

were very kind to us.

I felt a compassion, I felt the support that they gave us,

the genuine.

They helped us in every little way.

Provide us with food, give us guidance how to set out.

For learning, for paperwork, like what school to go to.

Apply for OHIP at that time, and finding a job.

I remember Mr. John Smith came to our house and 

talk about it and then took my oldest brother,

my older brother, my sister, and my sister-in-law

and looked for jobs for them.

He looked at me, my older brother, and my younger brother

and told us that these three can go to High School. 

So the four older children can go to work and

the three younger children can go to school.

And I got registered into Hill Park secondary school,

a twenty minute walk from my home.

After I look back back at the journey that I escaped from

Vietnam and how I was able to,

to be here in Canada.

I look back and I appreciate it.

It was quite emotional for me to talk about this.

Also I it's part of history, and my children,

the next generation, will learn about the history and

to appreciate their roots.

My name is Jolie Phuong Hoang

and to me Hamilton is the land of freedom.