DTP alumna Anna Takluem came to Australia as a refugee from Myanmar escaping Myanmar’s brutal military. Hers is a remarkable story of survival, resilience and commitment to others – in Australia and in her homeland of Myanmar. Anna’s story is part of the bigger Myanmar story of repression, displacement, survival and hope.
Born in Matupi in Chin State, Anna and her older sister were visiting their grandparents when the military abducted them and forced them into labour at a military camp. She was around 13 years old. For weeks they carried rocks, worked on roads, and slept in a tent with little food or warm clothing. That was in 2007. Eventually, together with a small group, Anna and her sister escaped the military camp on foot, walking eight nights through dense forests and rivers to cross into India’s Mizoram State.
In India, they registered with UNHCR in New Delhi and lived as refugees for seven years. With no right to formal education, Anna taught herself English by reading a Burmese Bible side-by-side with an English Bible. Later she found a way to enrol in Emmanuel Theological Seminary in Rajasthan, where she completed a Bachelor in Theology and Humanities, funding her studies by working in factories during holidays.
For two years after escaping Myanmar, Anna had no contact with her parents, who feared both daughters were dead. When she was able to call them for the first time in 2009 her parents could only cry. It was the first moment Anna’s parents knew Anna and her sister were alive.
In 2014 Anna was accepted into Australia’s refugee resettlement program and came to Australia on a humanitarian visa, to build a new life. It has been a life of service.
Professionally, Anna now works as a Multicultural Education Aide at St Dominic’s Primary School in Melton, Melbourne. She serves as a vital bridge between the school and families with Myanmar backgrounds. She assists children and families with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds with communication and language needs and advises the school on culturally inclusive practices so that students and their families feel safe, seen, included.
Anna finally became an Australian citizen in 2024.
In addition to her professional role at school, Anna serves as Secretary of the Victoria Matu Chin Community, supporting diaspora families in Australia as well as displaced Chin people in refugee camps and those internally displaced following Myanmar’s 2021 military coup.
In 2023, Myanmar’s democratic government in exile, NUG/CRPH Australia support group recommended Anna for DTP’s 31st Annual regional human rights and peoples’ diplomacy training in Timor-Leste.
Anna says that DTP training transformed her understanding of the United Nations:
“Prior to DTP training, my only experience of the UN was as a refugee in India as UNHCR helped me to get my refugee status,” she recalls. “Through DTP I finally understood how the UN really works, its history, and how we can use those UN mechanisms effectively for our people.”
Through the DTP, Anna also found Timor-Leste’s struggle for independence and democracy inspiring.
“The Timorese people never gave up, even in the hardest times,” Anna says. “That story reminds me that we also must not give up on Myanmar’s revolution.”
During the course she built friendships with activists from Timor-Leste who she is still in touch with. A Timorese friend, DTP alumnus and a professor at the National University of Timor-Leste Law Faculty, invited her to speak at the university to final-year law students about the Myanmar crisis.
In 2024, Anna returned to Mizoram, India where she first sought refuge after fleeing from military soldiers as a 13-year-old frightened child. Visiting those places as an Australian citizen, now filled with refugee camps following the 2021 coup, was deeply emotional for her. This also gives her further motivation to support displaced Chin communities through her advocacy and fundraising activities.
Anna’s story and journey to Australia and her service to her community in Australia, in Myanmar and in the diaspora is an incredibly powerful and moving one.
