Now a multicultural education support worker at Weeroona College in Bendigo, he has come a long way since his early days in Hobart - where he said his mother tried to find the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Each year on June 20, the United Nations recognises the journeys of people like Eh Soo who are forced to flee their homeland - and raises awareness of their right to safety.

Eh Soo is one of an estimated 5000 Karen minority residents living in Bendigo, having fled from the Thai-Myanmar border following civil war and a difficult life in refugee camps.

"When I look back at my life in the refugee camp, although I was happy, I realised it was prison," he said.

"We were locked in - no hope, no dreams.

"But here life is full of opportunity."

Some of his earliest memories include spending time in the camp with friends kicking the soccer ball around, "smoke rising from cooking pots" and "chickens crowing as students walked to school".

"Every morning in winter, we woke up by the fire and we make breakfast or sweet potato or leftover rice, cooking together around the fire till the sun came out," he said.

While he recounted those happy memories of smiling faces in the camp, Eh Soo also recalled homes being burnt, bullets, crying babies and hundreds of people on the streets.

"You're never going to see your home again, your family again and your friend again," he said.

The young Bendigonian - and now Australian citizen - said he was proud of who he was today and the resilience refugees like him have had to show through their experiences - but life in his new country was not always easy.

On his first day at school in cold and drizzly Hobart, he recalled the teacher asking students what they had for lunch. He did not have the language skills to say his mother had cooked him fried chicken and rice - his favourite.

"But I looked at the other lunches - they all had a sandwich," he said.

"I felt embarrassed because my food was different.

"That afternoon I told my mum to make me a sandwich (from the next day)."

For months, young Eh Soo could not communicate easily in English but he made a friend from the Congo who was also a refugee, and he helped translate.

"I wasn't the greatest student, but I tried my best to keep it up," he said.

Eh Soo eventually came to Bendigo when he was 16 and said the town felt much more like home than Tasmania. He has become heavily involved in soccer, music and the local Karen community in Australia.

"We (refugees) bounce back and and we don't really give up," he said.

"I think I'm proud to be who I am, whether that's Karen or a refugee.

"(Every journey to Australia) is very unique so I guess just be proud of who you are."

Now an adult, Eh Soo helps others to make those same difficult journeys through his work at Weeroona Secondary College.

In this role he helps students who have come from refugee camps, with limited or no English, to learn about their new country.

"I am actually able to help those students to achieve - where they want to go or where they want to be in the future, or just get them settled in Bendigo in the school environment," he said.

"I'm really, really lucky to help the students because I was one of those students when I came to school and it is very difficult when you come to a new country and the language, the culture, the environment is very different from where we live."

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