Artisan Profile - Zo

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What could make you leave behind your child? One evening the Myanmar Army entered the church where Zo’s husband worked demanding to be allowed to sleep in the building. When Aung replied that this wasn’t possible they threatened to shoot him. Miraculously he escaped and fled to Thailand, then to Malaysia, leaving behind Man and their son. A year passed and the couple thought it might be safe for him to return, but they were wrong. The army returned, threatening Zo’s life if she didn’t reveal where he was. Believing it would be safer for her infant son to remain with her mother, she made the heart-wrenching decision to leave him and flee Myanmar as well. For a week she traveled by bus and foot, at times so tired and hungry that she didn’t think she would make it, yet pressing on because it wasn’t safe to stop. At last she reached Malaysia and was reunited with her husband.

  A year later, after settling in with other refugees from Myanmar, Zo gave birth to their second son. Benjamin was born with overwhelming medical needs. Money for medical   care and medication was such a struggle. At last an Australian doctor working in Malaysia was willing to write a letter of recommendation for Benjamin to receive heart   surgery in America. The fragile family flew to the US in 2015   for Benjamin’s heart surgery. The family was able to receive asylum and remain permanently in the US, but their oldest son (now 15) remains in Myanmar with an uncle now since his grandmother passed away earlier this year. Zo worries he will be forcefully conscripted into the Burmese army.*

Zo says, "I love earning a paycheck and am thankful to be able to work from home while taking care of my youngest children."

*Zo has applied for family reunification.