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Keith Allmark and wife Conny relax near the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi after their latest mission to the Thai-Burma border.
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The Burmese Army forced him to flee, but he's a
Keith Allmark has devoted his life to helping refugees to gain freedom
and resettle in Australia. Keith Allmark fled Burma 44 years ago with his wife and six children after facing Army persecution for refusing to change his English name or renounce his Anglo-Burmese heritage.
Published on March 19, 2008
But he never forgot the people he left behind and has devoted his life to giving them a chance of freedom.
The 74-year-old great-grandfather has helped more than 800 Burmese refugees to resettle in Western Australia since setting up Tribal Refugee Welfare in Perth in 1986.
He and wife Conny recently visited Thailand so that they could check on the condition of Karen refugees forced to live in camps or in the jungle along the Thai-Burma border because of brutal persecution by the Burmese military junta.
"These people have suffered terribly. They have seen their villages burned to the ground and some were forced into hard labour. You cannot help but feel compassion for their plight," he said.
New life for the persecuted
"When we are able to sponsor refugees and give them a new life in Australia, it is so satisfying to see the relief on their faces when they arrive in a safe place."
Allmark is affectionately known as "Po Po", which means grandfather, by the people he has helped over the years. "I have hundreds of grandchildren and even a 90-year-old calls me grandfather," he joked.
This tireless humanitarian helps refugees adapt to Australian life by meeting them at the airport and organising housing, medical care, schools, banking and English lessons.
While he admits his unpaid work can be exhausting, he intends to keep on doing whatever he can to help Burma's oppressed refugees.
"The need is so great that my desire to help overcomes my exhaustion," he said.
By Peter Hill
Daily Xpress
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