Hello 🌻
I am Abang Anade Othow—
a teacher, speaker, survivor, and storyteller.

Abang Othow wearing a blue and multicolored garment with a red headscarf, braided hair, and gold hoop earrings against a blurred colorful background. Buckets of Hope

My story began in the shadows of war. At five years old, I was separated from my family during the brutal civil conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia. I became a child refugee, navigating six regions, surviving displacement, violence, illness, and heartbreak. From refugee camps to classrooms, women’s shelters to fashion runways, I carried pain—but also quiet strength.

Over time, I turned that pain into purpose. I became a teacher, a speaker, a mother, and an advocate. Today, I speak not for recognition, but for the freedom of others whose stories are still waiting to be heard.

From war to wisdom, Buckets of Hope began as a way to survive—and became a method to help others thrive.

This practice has helped students, refugees, educators, and communities across Australia and beyond to develop resilience and emotional growth.

Sudanese woman holding a green bucket on their head, wearing colorful traditional clothing, in Sudan

Buckets of Hope came to me not in a classroom, but in a moment of survival. I remembered the women in my family carrying colourful buckets, and I began sorting my emotions into them: yellow for joy, red for survival, green for growth, black for resilience, blue for flow.

It was how I coped as a child. Over time, it became how I healed—and eventually, how I helped others begin their own journey of emotional growth and resilience.

As a teacher, I stood before classrooms of children who were carrying their own invisible buckets, and I saw the transformation when I gave them language, colour, and story. What began as a whisper in the dark is now a movement.

Buckets of Hope is my offering to the world—a visual framework to move from surviving to thriving, and a reminder that every single one of us is worthy of healing.

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Family portrait with six people, including a woman in a red dress, a young boy, adolescent girl in a white shirt, a man in a dark shirt, and a woman in a red and black dress. Inset photo of a man wearing a dark jacket.
Abang Othow holding a Professional Excellence Award at the Celebration of African Australians NSW event.
Abang Othow balancing colorful Buckets of Hope on head, wearing a red top and multicolored skirt, with braided hair and colorful nails.

This is more than a method.
It’s a map, back to ourselves.

Buckets of Hope is a visual and emotional framework I created to help people understand, express, and transform their inner world. It began as a survival tool—born from my own lived experience as a child refugee—and evolved into a method I now share in classrooms, communities, and organisations.

The framework uses five coloured buckets to represent different emotional states: joy, growth, survival, resilience, and flow. It helps people not just name what they’re carrying, but begin to heal.

What I Believe 🌻

I believe we are all carrying something—grief, joy, fear, strength, memories we can’t quite name. And I believe that healing should be accessible to everyone. Not just in clinics or classrooms, but in communities, conversations, and everyday life.

Buckets of Hope is rooted in that belief. It’s a simple, visual language to help people of all ages understand and express what they’re feeling—and begin to transform it. This work began with children, but it’s for anyone who has ever carried pain in silence.

Because when we name what we carry, we make space to heal.

Click to hear Abang share her story and the Buckets of Hope method with Tash Fountas.

  • A woman with blond hair and a colorful green and blue scarf, sitting in a cozy living room featuring a sofa, patterned carpet, and a colorful blanket draped over a chair.

    "Abang has been a valuable advisor, sounding board, and visionary for me and the Asylum Seekers Centre during her time on the Board, and her elevation to Deputy Chair only reinforces this contribution."


    - Frances Rush OAM, CEO of the ASC

  • Logo of Refugee Council of Australia with green and black figures.

    "I trust that if you engage with Abang through her program, you will be impressed by the quality and the compassion she has for the work she does."


    - Deena Yako, Director of Community Engagement at Refugee Council Australia

  • Smiling woman with blonde hair, wearing an orange jacket, pearl necklace, and earrings, against a white background.

    "I am constantly amazed at what Abang has been able to achieve. She has been teaching high school students for more than 10 years. She is now an author, public educator, national refugee ambassador, speaker, and researcher."


    - Dr. Rozanne Zolin

  • "Abang is a true role model. She is non-judgemental, gracious and able to identify opportunities in unexpected or challenging situations. She respects and validates others, supports those around her and has the gift of bringing people along."


    - Inner West for Refugees

Follow the journey

Buckets of Hope by Abang Othow logo

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