Hard road to catwalk

For seven years, home for Tina Malou was a makeshift shelter in a dust-bowl refugee camp in Kenya. This week she will grace the catwalks of Air New Zealand Fashion Week, achieving a dream she and most of the friends she left behind in her homeland would never have thought possible.

The 19-year-old is one of the lucky few to escape war-torn Sudan and then northwestern Kenya for a new start in New Zealand.

After years of living in extreme poverty, relying on handouts and humanitarian aid, her family moved to Auckland in 1999.

The adjustment was overwhelming. Malou had to fit into an unfamiliar way of life and education system - and overcome the prejudices many foreigners face when settling in a new country.

"I love New Zealand, but I miss Africa. I spent my entire childhood in a refugee camp, so that was home. I didn't know any better," she said.

"I miss not having people around who are like me. But this country has been good to me, and I am extremely grateful."

It didn't take long for Malou's natural beauty and chic femininity to be recognised by one of Auckland's top modelling agencies.

She was "discovered" by 62 Models and Talent after winning the recent Miss Africa New Zealand competition, and now she is being touted as possibly the next big thing in the industry.

But like any aspiring model, she's nervous.

She's well aware of the cut-throat nature of the modelling business and says she's prepared for the challenges ahead. "I suppose growing up the way I did made me pretty tough."

But first she must make it through the next few days, modelling some of the country's top fashion labels.

"My main worry? I dread the idea of falling over my feet and collapsing in front of everyone," she said.

She still struggles with the idea of being a model and that the eyes of the industry will be on her. "Appearance didn't matter in Kenya. If you didn't brush your teeth or do your hair, no one really cared."

But she does hope the exposure from Fashion Week will catapult her into the world of multimillion-dollar contracts, a world away from war-torn Sudan, which her family fled when she was four.

They spent the next seven years in a refugee camp, with hundreds of Somalis, Ethiopians, Burundians, Congolese and Ugandans all forced out of their homelands.

"People think it was bad, and I suppose it was. But that was where I spent my entire childhood, so I have fond memories."

After several years of applying for refugee status, Malou's family was finally accepted into New Zealand in 1999, settling in South Auckland.

Like most aspiring top models, she dreams of walking down the runways of Milan and Paris.

"Who knows what'll happen. But imagine that, travelling the world modelling. It's a dream."