Sometimes, Sandar goes weeks or months without hearing a word from her family in Myanmar.
“It’s so scary, I just hope and pray they are still alive,” she says.
Each month, she sends money earned working night shifts at Amazon’s Kemps Creek warehouse to relatives back home.
Sandar, whose name has been changed to protect her safety when returning to Myanmar, says many in Western Sydney’s Burmese community support relatives struggling to access medical care, food, shelter and clean water following the 2021 military coup d’état.
“We all wait to hear from our families if anything changes, because the internet is restricted and unreliable… they tell us when people die, when houses are demolished and bombed by the military.”
We have very well documented, credible accounts of the regime continuing to use violence against children, churches, schools and ethnic minorities.
Senator Dean Smith
Sandar is among more than 100 people who gather at Doonside Community Centre every Saturday morning to fund humanitarian relief and opposition to the military junta. This weekend, they raised more than $8,000 selling traditional Burmese food to support the National Unity Government (NUG), an exiled shadow government formed after the regime overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected leaders in 2021.
Democracy advocate Yamin has coordinated Fundraising for Myanmar events for the past five years. Her surname has been withheld for privacy reasons.
“All funds raised today are directed to supporting the NUG to become Myanmar’s legitimate democratic government,” she says.
“As the Burmese diaspora in Sydney, we collaborate with pro-democracy activists, fundraise for humanitarian aid across Myanmar’s seven states, distribute the news of the NUG’s work and lobby the Australian Government.”
Women sell Burmese food at Doonside Community Centre.
Following the February 2021 military coup, civil war broke out between Myanmar’s military junta and resistance fighters from ethnic armed organisations and pro-democracy forces.
The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced 5.2 million, and on November 19, the United Nations court in the Hague will rule on whether the military crackdown against the mostly Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine State has constituted a genocide. It has previously reported on what it alleges were deliberate military air-strikes on hospitals, villages, schools, places of worship and displacement camps. The United States government has also accused the Myanmar military of attempting to carry out a genocide.
At the fundraiser, Western Sydney residents serve homemade mohinga, a rice-noodle fish soup, alongside Burmese curries, doughnuts and traditional milk tea.
“All the Burmese foods you can ask for, you can buy here,” says Sandar.
Visitors eat together at trestle tables set up throughout the community centre, while speeches recognise the community’s fundraising efforts and their ongoing commitment to civilian democracy.
When a bugle sounds, they pause for a minute’s silence. “For the fallen,” Sandar explains.
Among the attendees is Western Australian Senator Dean Smith, who is advocating for Australia to adopt stronger opposition to Myanmar’s military government.
In 2025, Smith secured Senate support to launch the Inquiry into Democracy and Human Rights in Myanmar. The report was released in March 2026 and recommends the imposition of stronger sanctions, more flexible humanitarian assistance, expanded refugee pathways and formal engagement with Australian diaspora communities.
While Smith says that the report has provided a roadmap for Australia, he believes that the government’s response was “disappointing”.
Senator Dean Smith delivers a speech at Doonside’s Myanmar fundraiser. Photo by Ainslie McNally.
“We have very well documented, credible accounts of the regime continuing to use violence against children, churches, schools and ethnic minorities,” he added.
“I think it [the government] failed to recognise the depth of feeling that continues in Burmese diaspora groups.”
It’s a sentiment that is echoed by Yamin, who says that many people in Western Sydney’s Burmese community live with deeply traumatic memories of the military regime. She tells Central News that they are often reluctant to share their stories publicly due to fears for their relatives’ safety in Myanmar.
“You can understand the continuity of [the military’s] repressive effects for them,” she says.
Yamin’s pro-democracy campaigning also carries personal risks. Her work has forced her to sacrifice her ability to visit her family in Myanmar while the military regime is in power.
“There is no free speech… if I were to return, I would risk being detained,” she says.
“I have to keep my work private and separate from my family, the regime gives trouble to family members who are still living in Burma… it’s led me to become more estranged.”
Despite the distance from her family and her home country, Yamin says that she will not stop campaigning.
The three finger gesture, originally from the Hunger Games films, is now a symbol of rebellion against Myanmar’s military regime. Photo by Ainslie McNally.
As Smith’s visit ends, she joins him and members of Western Sydney’s Burmese community for a photograph. Together, they raise a popular three fingers gesture, taken from the Hunger Games films, of solidarity with Myanmar’s resistance movement.
“It’s been more than five years, but we’re not losing hope,” Yamin says.
“We always believe that we will bring civilian-led federal democracy back to Burma.”
Main photo by Ainslie McNally.
