She was just 5 at the time.

Her mother had led her children on a three-week journey from their home and everything they knew, on foot and by boat through the jungles of Myanmar and Thailand.

They had fled Myanmar to escape the increasingly brutal crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Her father was already in Malaysia having fled three years earlier, and the family was headed there to join up with him.

Sharifah continued her journey from the border alone, to eventually be reunited with her family in Kuala Lumpur, where she now lives with her husband.

Twenty years after her own perilous journey to sanctuary, the cause of the displaced — particularly children — remains dear to her heart.

Refugees in Malaysia, whether registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or not, are forbidden to go to national schools, work legally, or get access to healthcare.

Sharifah faced all of the struggles refugee children have to deal with in Malaysia.

Because of the law, she was forced to educate herself by watching television and reading anything she could find.

Now an adult, she also has personal experience of the particular problems women refugees face.

Several years ago, she attended an NGO programme for the Rohingya community in Ampang, during which she was berated by a Rohingya man for two hours for speaking about the need for men and women to work together to help their community.

“That kind of attitude breaks my heart but also motivates me because it shows how crazily people can act, and how much they need to get educated,” she told FMT recently.

That incident was one of the reasons she founded the Rohingya Women’s Development Network (RWDN) in 2016.

The 500 or so women who regularly congregate at RWDN programmes in Rohingya communities around KL discuss topics which include sexual reproductive health, gender inequality and child marriage. Quran reading sessions are popular.

They also investigate how refugee women can find jobs or start their own businesses.

RWDN also gives her a platform from which to tell the world what was really going on in Myanmar and why her family fled.

It’s a story she can now tell in five languages: English, Malay, Burmese, Hindi and Rohingya.

“The international community thinks the Rohingya have only been dealing with genocide since 2012, but that’s simply not true. It’s been going on for around 80 years,” she said.

“Rohingya are not economic migrants. We fled to save our lives.”

Life in their new country is not always easy. The police have come knocking on Sharifah and her husband’s door. They have also been harassed by thugs. So much so that at one point, they had to move to a guest house to keep a low profile and avoid potentially violent confrontations.

The RWDN is, as its name makes clear, primarily about empowering women. But she’s not making this a battle of the sexes. She believes each gender represents one hand, and they cannot clap unless they work together.

Asked what she would say to those men who belittled her, Sharifah said she’d remind them not to discourage anyone from fighting for their community and what they believe in.

“Even if just 10 people out of the hundreds who attend RWDN programmes feel they have learnt something, I see that as a success.”

She’s expecting to see a RWDN branch in Bangladesh soon, and intends to later assist other under-attack women’s groups in Myanmar like the Kachins.

“But first we need funding to be able to do that.”

Here in Malaysia, there is talk of a government proposal to let refugee children go to national schools and have access to healthcare.

“I really hope the new government does that. Then, when those kids grow up, they’ll be able to effectively contribute to this society that saved them.”

Much to the surprise of this naturally modest woman, the US embassy in KL recently nominated her to represent Malaysia in the annual US Department of State’s International Women of Courage award.

She is the first non-Malaysian to be nominated locally for the award.

US Ambassador to Malaysia Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir presented her with a certificate recognising her as Malaysia’s nominee.

Sharifah has certainly come a long way. From a frightened and foot-sore five-year-old, alone in the clutches of people smugglers at the Malaysian border, to International Women of Courage nominee.

She is making it in Malaysia against the odds, and although she would undoubtedly deny it, she is an outstanding example of what refugee kids can achieve in and for this country if they are only given a fair chance to try.