World Refugee Day 2020 – Hao Anh Nguyen

Hao’s story

In recognition of World Refugee Day on the 20th June, we caught up with Hao Anh Nguyen to talk about his family’s experiences living in Ireland.

Hao’s father and uncles first came to Ireland in the 1980s through Ireland’s family members policy for Vietnamese refugees. His father began with nothing, but overtime secured a job in a Chinese takeaway and worked for many years to save up money in order to bring Hao’s mother and older brother to Ireland. In this time, he learned Chinese and worked his way up to becoming a head chef before retiring due to back pains caused from years of living roughly in Vietnam.

Hao says: “This is a constant reminder to me of how dedicated and hard-working my father was. It’s a lesson that no matter how tough life can be, self-discipline, hard work and patience go a long way in life”.

They are now a family of nine: Hao’s parents, himself, his three brothers, two sisters and his niece. Hao’s parents moved into their estate in Clondalkin, Dublin in 1997. Hao, the second eldest in the family, was born the following year and has grown up there. This estate was Clúid’s first scheme, back when our Chief Executive, Brian O’Gorman, used to be the Housing Officer for the estate when he first began at Clúid.

Hao, pictured above, tells us what it is like to live on his estate. He says: “I absolutely love living here. The community has grown even stronger as the time goes by. Neighbours keep an eye out for each other. We have the canal by our house, so I can go for a jog down there. Public transport is decent enough and I feel safe in my estate”.

Hao is currently studying Multimedia at college. He loves his course. He says: “My plan for the future is to keep on practicing my photo and video editing skills, get better at programming, complete more mini projects and complete my college degree. By then I hopefully will be one step closer to my lifetime goal which is to be a creative director or multimedia specialist at a big firm. I want to give back to my family. I want to give back 10 times more than what they have given me, so that none of them have to worry about money ever again”.

We wish you the very best in your studies, Hao, and thank you and your family for sharing your story with us.