In a Melbourne park, 'Zana' watches children play with their parents, listening to their laughter.
But no such memories exist from her childhood.
Zana grew up in Iran with her mother, siblings and violently abusive father.
"When he was really angry he would just beat anyone around him. He would get really upset and angry. He would get upset for no reason, any excuse he would get upset," she said.
The abuse was so bad, her mother was hospitalised on several occasions.
They sought help from family, friends and eventually the courts but none offered any recourse.
AMES migrant refugee settlement services hub Source: SBS
"She took documents to the court and say this is what my husband did, and they do believe her and they say yes, this is not right what he does but they say he has a right to take your children, especially the youngest one," Zana said.
So she stayed.
The family only escaped the abuse when her father died of a heart attack, and the family sought asylum in Australia.
But it's an experience that has left a lasting legacy with hers and many other migrant families.
CEO of migrant and refugee settlement service provider AMES, Cath Scarth, said family violence often goes unreported in newly arrived communities.
Saba Alemayoh at AMES session Source: SBS
"Many new, emerging and small communities are concerned that if they talk opening about these sorts of things that the broader community will make assumptions about what that says about them," she said.
It's an attitude AMES is attempting to change.
The group is holding sessions with 42 community leaders over the next three months in order to devise new strategies to tackle family violence.
Representing the Ethiopian community, Saba Alemayoh said it's important the answer come from within the community.
"It's important that we have us, and people within in the community and within the culture speaking to the community rather than outsiders per se, because I think there is a sense of attack, there is a sense of we don't air our dirty laundry and we definitely don't air our dirty laundry to an outsider," she said.
Research released by AMES suggests that it's these cultural differences that make anti-violence campaigns geared towards the general population ineffective for newly arrived communities.
Hamsa Farah, of the Somali community, said strategies to address attitudes towards family violence need to be tailored.
"They all come from diverse backgrounds which means we bring a lot more ideas in, a lot more innovative solutions and hopefully we can all develop plans to take to our respective communities and implement these strategies and get a decrease in the statistics," he said.
Hamsa Farah at AMES session Source: SBS
The program working to translate not just language, but concepts such as gender equality across the cultural divide.
Zana said equating family violence as a type of abuse is a fundamental first step.
"People even do not have an idea what abuse means, because they are brought up to think this is what is normal this is just what happens inside your house," she said.
