Sister Elizabeth Nghia

Elizabeth Nghia Bui was born in North Vietnam. Her family fled to South Vietnam in 1954 and settled in Saigon. Elizabeth entered the order of the Lovers of the Holy Cross and trained first as a teacher and then as a social worker. In 1975 at the time of the fall of Saigon she was in charge of an orphanage which came under Communist control. Elizabeth escaped on board a fishing boat with 31 others in June 1976. After two weeks they were rescued and taken to Japan. From there Elizabeth decided to come to Australia. In the extract presented here she describes her flight from Vietnam.