By Laura Trieste
Thang Ngo has travelled a long way to get to Cabramatta.
Now a national manager at SBS, and formerly a councillor at Fairfield City Council, as a young teen growing up in Penrith he never thought he would be where he is today.
“Our dream for me was to become a bank clerk,” Mr Ngo said.
“That’s what my high school career adviser said I can do.”
Mr Ngo’s family escaped Vietnam in 1975, settling in Penrith. Mr Ngo, then 10, struggled to fit in with other school kids.
“I wasn’t really bullied but I was teased heaps - kids are kids,” he said.
Despite the difficulties, Mr Ngo said he was thankful for what the times had taught him.
“It was then I learnt that I really needed to be strong,” he said.
“I focused on finding my similarities with everyone rather than the differences.”
After finishing high school, Mr Ngo moved to Bossley Park and found he felt he “belonged” in the Fairfield region.
“No one’s got a chip on their shoulder here, everyone treats everyone equally,” the now Cabramatta resident said.
Mr Ngo’s career as a Fairfield councillor came by accident.
The opportunity sprung from his determination to stop the Huyen Quan Temple in Bankstown from shutting down in 1998.
“We fought council and won but the monk from the temple said I should run for council just to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Mr Ngo said.
“I only became a councillor by accident but then I had some unfinished business.”
That unfinished business kept him busy until last year when he made the switch to national manager of language at SBS.
But no matter where life takes him, Mr Ngo is sure he will always come back to Cabramatta.
“Once you’ve found a place that feels right then there’s no reason to leave it,” he said.
“What I hope people understand is that the world is limitless. Just because you start from the bottom doesn’t mean you can’t have dreams.”
Thang Ngo also writes a blog for Fairfield Advance.
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