Dr. Nhung Tran-Davies was only five years old when she needed to flee home because of the Vietnam War. She and her family spent eight months in a refugee camp in Malaysia. Then an Alberta church sponsored their immigration to Canada.
Nhung arrived in Canada on a boat with 300 other refugees. She remembers it was nauseating and suffocating.
At the airport gate, a little Canadian girl called Adrienne gave a doll to Nhung.
"This little girl presented a little gift... This doll lit up my heart and in that moment, it meant everything to me," says Nhung. After that, the girls stayed friends. This doll has also inspired Nhung to become a doctor and help others, as this girl has helped her.
"Knowing now that all that I have, and all that I've become, is because of this simple act of kindness, I live to this day to pay forward the kindness," she said. Nhung has also sponsored a refugee family, who were escaping the war in Syria. She gifted a doll to the youngest daughter in the family.
"It was my turn now, 40 years later, to be standing at the gates to give little Alma a doll. It was just an amazing, important moment for myself, but I think it meant something to her because I know that in 40 years it will be her turn to make Canada a more beautiful place," she said.
