Gowry was 36 years old when she left Sri Lanka. She belonged to a middle-class family from Jaffna. Members of her family started to leave the island once the “problems” there grew larger. One by one, they boarded planes and boats, to flee and leave behind their homes.

Suthamie's husband fled Jaffna in April 1984. He had arrived in West Germany as a refugee while she was forced to stay back in war torn Jaffna. Suthamie couldn’t accompany him since she was in her sixth months of pregnancy. The doctor had prohibited her from boarding a plane. Despite his wife’s condition it was too dangerous for her husband to stay as a young Tamil man in the North. He left months before seeing his second child’s birth. She was 24 years old when she decided to follow her husband’s footsteps to safety.