Intrepid journey pays off in high achievement for Mai Ho

Mai Ho’s life was altered forever by a journey she took in 1981, fleeing Vietnam in a refugee boat with her two small daughters.

Mai Ho, the first Vietnamese-born mayor in Australia, was a key influence on her daughter, 1998 Young Australian of the Year Tan Le. Picture: Aaron Francis

It’s little wonder the word “journey” crops up over and over when you talk to Mai Ho.

Her life was altered forever by a journey she took in 1981, fleeing Vietnam in a refugee boat with her two small daughters, Tan, 4, and Min, a year younger.

Enduring five days and nights in extremely rough seas, with the threat of pirates ever present, Ms Ho had a stash of poison ready for herself and her girls if things ­became too grim.

“I just hugged them very tight, and said don’t worry, we’re heading to a place where there is so much freedom, where you can have a proper education, not just propaganda, an education that can shape your future,” Ms Ho tells The Weekend Australian.

“I kept telling them these ­stories while we were in the boat to make the fear go away, for them, but also for me.”

A longer journey defined her life after they survived, and arrived in Australia. On this journey, the journey of hard work, there was clarity of purpose.

Two weeks after the trio landed in the migrant centre in Melbourne’s Maribyrnong, Ms Ho was waking up each morning to pick peas and potatoes.

Then work at the Holden factory, then running her own small computer business, adding a beauty salon, and then, 16 years after landing in Melbourne, she was elected lord mayor of Mari­byrnong, the nation’s first ­Vietnamese-born lord mayor.

“My journey has always been about the children. Providing them with enough to eat, with clothes, but mostly ensuring their education. That was the single most important thing for me. It was what my parents had done for me, and I was determined to do it for my girls,” Ms Ho said.

“But civic duty is important too. Coming from Vietnam, to be able to live in a democracy where you can freely express your views, I think it’s an obligation to undertake civic duty, however big or small, whatever you can do.”

The payoff for Ms Ho was the success of her daughters. Both became lawyers, although Tan Le, who was Young Australian of the Year in 1998, quickly veered into a stellar career as a tech entrepreneur and software developer working in San Francisco.

Mai Ho with her daughter, 1998 Young Australian of the Year Tan Le. Picture: Aaron Francis

Tan Le’s latest world-leading work involves the development of helmets fitted with technology that captures brainwaves, allowing thoughts to be converted into physical actions.

It has been successfully used to allow quadriplegics to drive.

“Tan was always so focused, even as a child. She wanted to do something that would contribute to human development and make life better for people. And she’s doing it,” Ms Ho said. “She has always had three main qualities: focus, hard work and high ethics.”

Mother and daughter remain extremely close, despite Tan Le moving to the US 14 years ago. “We text and Facetime so much, and we have a ‘nest’ in our kitchens so she can see me cutting vege­tables and I can see my ­grandchild doing things like crawling.”

Coming up to 60, Ms Ho’s own journey continues, spending months each year with her new grandchild and, like her two daughters before her, studying law. She has two years to go.

“Tan wants me to try her work. Studying law, you need a good memory and she says maybe her technology can help me build my memory.”