Chenna’s amazing family history!

Year 5 are looking at their family trees with Mrs Lingley Lorenzo.  Chenna Mitchel, one of the year 5 pupils had an amazing story to tell.

Chenna’s Mum, Mrs Tcheang, and her family escaped the Khmer Rouge Regime. The Khmer Rouge were communists who ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The family briefly settled in Vietnam only to have to escape again due to the persecution of ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam at the time.

The number of boat people leaving Vietnam and arriving safely in another country totalled almost 800,000 between 1975 and 1995. Many of the refugees failed to survive the passage, facing danger from pirates, over-crowded boats, and storms.

Mrs Tcheang’s family were one of the lucky ‘boat people’ who were rescued by a British merchant navy vessel. Only recently Mrs Tcheang’s family managed to trace the Captain of that ship that rescued them and they were able to meet him recently on the 40th anniversary of the rescue.

Chenna is very proud of her Cambodian-Chinese heritage passed down to her by her brave Mum!

(b&w pictures courtesy of wikipedia)