Nay Kaw ’23 and his brother Ehku ’26 were born into a country that had been at war with itself for 70 years. And they were born into a minority. In 2010, when the boys were 7 and 4, respectively, they fled Burma with their mother. Their new home was a refugee camp in Thailand.
The young men remember very little from this time in their lives when they were very little. Ekhu remembers only running through the camp naked on laundry day. Nay remembers more.
“You don’t have anything,” he said, from Cincinnati, where he works as an auditor now. “No shoes, no fashionable clothes, just basic. You don’t have a home, and you’re just waiting on a place to go.”
It’s a small world
Learn more about Kentucky Refugee Ministries through the eyes of another Berea alumna,
in an article featuring photos by Nay ’23.
Checkout the article from the Winter 2024 issue of the Berea College Magazine
The place to go turned out to be Louisville, Ky., home to Kentucky Refugee Ministries. Their mother, Poe, now disabled, raised Nay, Ehku and their oldest brother, Monday, alone on public assistance. The older boys took turns at being father figures for each other.
Nay enrolled at West End School, a scholarship-based boarding school in Louisville, and later landed a scholarship to Louisville Collegiate, a prestigious prep school. Because of his success, he had options for higher education and good guidance. He chose Berea because of its affordability, diversity and mission. He majored in business and finance, worked in the College marketing department and interned with LouCity & Racing Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping underprivileged kids afford to play soccer.
Nay became the first in his family to earn a college degree. “I feel blessed,” he said. “It was hard to go through it and not have any example or people that did it before me, but I feel proud, successful. My mom’s proud. She brags.”
Nay said, because he grew up with her never having anything, he always wanted to be a provider. Nay didn’t talk about his role as father figure to his younger brother, but Ekhu did. It was Nay who had to give consent for Ekhu to have part of his skull removed to relieve pressure on his brain after a car accident. Ekhu had been ejected from the car and faced 90 days
in recovery.
“Every day I woke up grateful to be alive,” Ehku said.
He says Nay permitting the surgery brought them closer.
“Nay’s a great role model,” Ehku said. “He’s always confident. But I never was until after the accident. For 90 days, my junior year, it was wake up, eat, take your pills, go to therapy until late in the day. It makes you realize just how grateful you’ve got to be. I became more confident because now I wanted to be successful. You have to be the role model you wish you had.”
Ekhu is now a marketing major at Berea and, like his brother, manages the student photography team in the Marketing and Communications department. He just finished his own internship at LouCity & Racing Foundation.
“I hate to admit it, but I followed Nay’s every step.”
He hopes to be a role model for others, too, and Berea is helping him become one. “I can’t think of another school that provides the opportunities Berea does. They treat students as investments and teach you to invest in yourself. But it’s not an easy way out. Berea makes you earn it.”
