Para Paheer
Para Paheer (Paheertharan Pararasasingam) was born in 1978 into extreme poverty in a low caste Tamil family of farmers in northern Sri Lanka. He was just five years old when civil war erupted and engulfed the country for nearly three decades.
Para’s father had to leave the family to save his son from forcible conscription by the Tamil Tigers. Left in charge, 16-year-old Para supported his impoverished family, including through forcible displacement, while continuing his studies with the help of some exceptional teachers and friends. His excellent performance meant admission to university to study economics where, in his last year, he was elected President of the Jaffa University Student Union. Involvement in student politics during the 2003 national elections and beyond led to his arrest, torture and imprisonment.
Fearing for his life, Para was forced to flee his homeland in 2007, in desperation, boarding a tiny fishing boat bound for Australia. One of the lucky survivors rescued in the Indian Ocean by a passing gas tanker after their boat sunk, he spent two years in the Christmas Island detention centre. In 2017, Para became a proud Australian citizen, and was joined by his wife and son after eight years' separation.
Para Paheer with Alison Corke
In May 2009 Sri Lanka’s long and dreadful civil war was finally brought to an horrific end. Ruthlessly driven to a small strip of land on the tip of the island’s north-east coast, tens of thousands of innocent civilians died, smashed by artillery, killed by snipers, denied medical treatment and starved to death beneath the baking sun.
This ferocious battle consolidated and highlighted the terrors of the preceding twenty-six years of war, characterised by torture, vicious murders and desperate acts from both sides. In such a cruel war, was there any room for humanity?
This is the story of an impoverished young Tamil growing up during one of the modern world’s longest conflicts. A child when the war began, Para grew up to become a student leader who was targeted, captured and tortured by the Sri Lankan government. Fleeing to seek asylum in Australia, after a gruelling month at sea his boat capsized in the middle of the Indian Ocean. All seemed lost until he was miraculously rescued by the gas tanker LNG Pioneer and taken to Christmas Island Detention Centre.
While in detention, Para became penfriends with Alison Corke, a member of the Apollo Bay branch of Rural Australians for Refugees, in Victoria. On his release in 2011 he moved in with the Corke family.
“From our first letters, exchanged while Para was in detention and trying to improve his English, I knew he was an exceptional young man, with an astonishing tale to tell.
I am proud to be helping him share his story and to find and thank those people who helped him survive, often against massive odds…Time and again, Para and I agreed that it is the little things that matter most – those small, often unremembered acts of kindness that can change someone’s world. We all have the power to do something; only we can choose whether to use that power for the good.”
—Alison Corke
This is their story, the story of refugees, friendships and the power of good people.