Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization Asian Family Center Oral History Project

Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization

Asian Family Center Oral History Project

Date: July 1, 2014

Location: Asian Family Center, Portland, Oregon

Length: 00:58:16

Interviewee: Hongsa Chanthavong

Interviewer: Natalia Fernández

Transcriber: Hope Glenn

[00:00:00]

NF: Natalia Fernández

HC: Hongsa Chanthavong

Also present during the interview was AFC staff member Sokho Eath

NF: My name is Natalia Fernández, and I am here at the Asian Family Center in

Portland, Oregon. Today’s date is July 1 st , 2014 and I will be interviewing Mr. Hongsa.

So, let’s go ahead and get started. Could you please state your name and spell it out loud?

HC: My name is Hongsa Chanthavong. Hongsa: H-O-N-G-S-A, Chanthavong is C-H-A-

N-T-H-A-V-O-N-G.

NF: And what is your birthdate and birthplace?

HC: I was born on October 1 st , 1934, in Laos.

NF: And what ethic or cultural background do you identify yourself with?

HC: Well, I am Lao. I come from Laos.

NF: And when and where were your parents born?

HC: My parents was—were born in Laos. I think probably in—I was born in 1934, so my parent—my mother I think was born in 1908, like that, and my father probably born in 19—no, sorry, my father was born, I think, in 1908; my mother was born in 1910.

NF: Okay. And did you grow up there in Laos; did you end up moving here at a young age?

HC: I was born, I grew up in Laos. I went to school in elementary and secondary school in Savannakhet in southern part of Laos, and then I came to Vientiane and finished my

Asian Family Center Oral History Project ~ Hongsa Chanthavong ~ July 1, 2014 Page 1

school over there, and then I came to United States in 1959, to study at University of

Miami. And then I went back to Laos after graduation in 1964. And back and forth.

NF: So you came by yourself, or did you—

HC: No, yeah, I came - I got a scholarship from US Government, you know, for four years to study in the United States.

NF: What did you study?

HC: I studied what they called school of government of political science.

NF: And did you want to stay, did you want to come back to the United States, or were you thinking of going back to Lao and staying there?

HC: Well, when I graduate I start working at State Department as an escort interpreter for three months. Escort the Lao visitors to Laos, and then I went back to Laos. I worked the government in 1975, when I was captured by the communist, and then I came a refugee to the United in 19-, let me see, 1983, and start working at IRCO in 1984.

NF: Did you come by yourself when in you came in the 1980s?

HC: No, we come; we came as refugees with my wife, my three boys.

NF: Okay, so your family was able to come with you?

HC: Oh yeah, my family was able to. Actually, at that time, I was in Washington D.C. for five month and when the fall of the country I went to Laos to get my parent and then I was captured by the communists for six years. So, after six year in the reeducation, I came back and brought my family to United, as refugee.

NF: And so you mentioned you came here and you began working for IRCO. Did IRCO originally help you when you first arrived?

HC: Yeah. I start working with IRCO in 1984 as a business specialist with the economic development project, you know, primarily funded by the Ford Foundation.

NF: So, when you came originally, what services did IRCO provide you and your family?

HC: Well, I work as a staff—what is it?


[00:04:55]

NF: When you originally came, what services did IRCO provide you? I’m curious what

IRCO was like in the 1980s when you arrived, so what services did they provide you and your family?

HC: Well, I worked as a business specialist actually for about—I was supposed to be about three month, and then until now, so we worked with the economic development project for seven year, that Ford Foundation, and then I go on for another program, what they call the resource specialist. And then IRCO sent me to Florida to expand the

IRCO program in Florida, and then I came back, became the director of international language bank, until we set up the Asian Family Center, so I was the center coordinator in 1994.

NF: Okay. So, one of the questions is how long have you been with the AFC, so you were here in the very beginning. What was that like, setting up the AFC? Why was it necessary to create the Asian Family Center?

HC: Well, Asian Family Center, remember Asian community, or Asian refugee is the largest community in Oregon. Asia, look at the world, Asia is one third of the world population, so there are many refugees from Indochina, I mean Cambodian, Lao,

Vietnam, and then Thai, and then Vietnamese—so there are more needs for the children who come here, for family, that they have to study, how to adjust to system in the

United States, you know.

NF: So, were you one of the original people that had the idea to create the AFC? Who were some of the people that also—

HC: Well, I think at that time IRCO, well, Multnomah County asked IRCO to study the need of Asian community, and then they had us—the study, the survey and they made a - and they had the committee, the Asian committee member of many people, different groups from the community, had to start Asian Family Center and Multnomah County had a budget and they advocate for the Asian Family Center so that that’s the need.

And why I started? At that time they interviewed me to be the center coordinator, and so I was accepted. At that time, I also was the Asian Youth Leadership Club manager, funded by United Way, that we are prior to the—and that’s in 1993. So, I worked with that for another year, so that’s the reason I apply, because I see that Asian community, there are many, many organizations, and many many group, so the Asian Family

Center had the idea to become like one shopping center. The Asian Family Center is set up—at that time it was one of the seven family centers, so the people from the Asian community would come to the center and then we provided the service to them, what


we had. But if we cannot provide, we refer to all seven family center in Multnomah

County. That beginning, before there were only two or three program at the beginning.

NF: So what were some of the services at the very beginning that AFC provided?

HC: There was access to service, I mean that you know, when the community need, the children, the youth, the family, they come to us so they know how to access the services, whether in a mainstream service, whether in another center, that’s another one. And then we have a parent education, teaching parent how to raise the children in the country, and another one we have, the recreation - recreation for the young people and family, and funding by the county, by United Way and also support by Nike at that time. So, and that’s some of the, the beginning that we have.

[00:10:28]

NF: So, over the years, what were your positions with the AFC? You were originally the coordinator and then over these last twenty years, what have been some of your positions?

HC: Yeah, I was the center coordinator, actually at that time, I was the center coordinator for the, what they call. And then there were, other than coordinator at that time there was Jeff, the director for, associate director of the center, he’s in charge of development, but I’m in charge of the management of our core programs. So, after that, the programs in 19…programs for parent-child development service was start, in 19, let me see, sorry. [Pause] Oh yeah, the parent-child development start in—you can talk more with Danita on that one, but I think it start in 19, let me see, 1997, parents, add to the Asian Family Center, at the beginning was a few, and then they expand to another immigrant group. And then another program, the health department, the tobacco prevention start later on, and then comes another program, like emergency program, diversity and leadership, you know. So, it start from over three hundred thousand, now become over three million budget program, or fifty, so Asian Family Center—and I was the center coordinator up to 2004. And then I retired, and then I came back.

NF: When did you come back?

HC: One week after that [laughs]. And then when I come back, I assist Lee Po Cha, who was director in implementing mainly the health program, and then the tobacco prevention, and then the health program, and then came back and then I coordinate the emergency program for three year, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Emergency program, this is the one emergency program that after I retired, I’m in charge, and I develop a program and the emergency for three year, and then came with the diversity and leadership program


in 2008, so it’s all in the past, and at that time Polo was the director, and then Joseph and then Pei-ru.

NF: Okay, and so currently, what is your position? So, what do you do right now?

HC: [laughs] Now, I am in two program: one is I’m the community organizer of the—I was the, diversity and civic leadership project, what they call engagement. We outreach to Asian community, my duty, we recruit Asian community, and then we have a workshop, the training program in the past six years we have trained over hundredfifty community leader and member, and after training we assist them to take a role in city, county, commission, in the state, and also in their own community, be it in their— you know in different community they have what they call an MAA, Mutual Assistant leadership. But also, our graduate from diversity and leadership is become advisory board member, become another different agency, so we had to work with them, follow them, you know, feel for future – development of our community. My second job is a business development specialist, and business development specialist is what they call microenterprise, I think 19…I think 2012. Now it’s our fourth program. We help recruit our business owner and train them, we assist them on marketing, we assist them on loan fund, if they need a loan fund, so in order that they can grow their business and help their business. For those people who want to start understand, we ask them to— actually I was the business specialist for seven years with Ford Foundation and before.

So, that’s about my duties.

[00:16:35]

NF: For the engage project, and for the business development, is it all ages, anyone in the community, or is it specific ages or, who are you looking for, what types of people?

HC: Well, I it’s all the business owner or they are owners but, and also the leadership program, also the community member.

NF: Do people apply for these programs or do you recruit them, or both?

HC: We, well the first duty as we develop the program, we have the flyer, we outreach to the community. Our outreach is, can be individual outreach, talk with them, get in touch with the business, also, we also—our staff are coming from different community; they can assist us on outreach also. Our advisory board also, so if—some of them already know, you know, they call them and they put them in the program.

NF: Okay. So, what do you see as your role within—as your role and the AFC’s role within Oregon’s immigrant and refugee communities? So programs like these, and assisting community members, how do you see that functioning?


HC: You know, I think to me that I see the AFC as probably the big, most important role play for IRCO’s growth and development. You look at history, after the fall of

Indochina, they set up here, in 1976, what they call an ICC, Indochinese Cultural Service

Center, provide for the Cambodian, Lao, and Vietnamese, that one. And then, in 1983, they have under another program - mainly served the Indochinese, I mean it was the, what they call Southeast Asian Refugee Federation, where the Ford Foundation give money to Oregon, become the third in the nation to develop refugee loan fund for business - you can see all these businesses. So, in history actually, the Asian are the biggest and they play a role. And then in 1984 they merged the two organizations, so the two organizations is mainly to serve Asian community. Now it becomes

International Refugee Center of Oregon, serve all refugee.

[00:19:53]

So, if you look at the history, the AFC, people who at the beginning, it is people from

Indochina. Now, another role that AFC brings is in the program; you can look at different program that we have. Now, Asian Youth Leadership Program, funding by

United Way, in 2000—no, in 1993, was mainly for the Asian community when I was managing. Now the youth activity is spread out throughout IRCO, and the Asian, the program, there are many, many, many program by the AFC play a role for IRCO, or is that…parent-child development service, start with the AFC here. Mainly at that site and for the Asian family, Asian community, you know, in 1997. Now, now we serve for the

Slavic here at IRCO, the African, so it start from the AFC, the program. Even the SUN school, and you can talk with Fritz, now I think there are about six SUN schools, and they’re in 2004. It’s also started the program that started from the Asian Family and there are many some other under the program at IRCO, I think the AFC, when we bring up the Asian Family and then become the center, that when we bought it, we have the big room, serve many things, or that IRCO yeah, some programs, some people here, so that, you know, looking at the budget, looking at the program, looking at how many they serve, so Asian are the biggest, the Asian population. But the last one, the most important part that I see that AFC, very important role for IRCO, bring IRCO visibility, credibility, reputation, all of that and that, we start at the Asian, from Asian Cultural

Night - we bring on the funder, all the community leader member, all the mainstream, that we have now, become, this year at the beginning, we set up the service and we bring over five hundred people right now. So that, the IRCO is - so that we make alone; reputation, credibility for IRCO. I think that is the…

NF: Great. So, you’ve talked a lot about assisting the community and assessing the community’s needs, how have you seen, over the years, over these last twenty or so years, have you seen that the community’s needs have stayed the same in terms of the


types of programs you’re providing, or do you see that over the years you’ve provided new programs and added new things based on what the community needs?

HC: Well, I think that we are so happy, we are proud of the changing; they are not the same as before. We start with very, very small program, a few programs. We start with the few funders, now they are, you know, our funding sources come from state, county, city, you know. And foundations and more money. Now, because of the funding shows that to me, the need of our people, there are more program, there are more—people are active in our community, they assist their families, they assist their community, you know. And also, there are many of other community now to our training, to our support, become very active in community, in neighborhood, in city, county. I think a lot of changing going in a good direction to become the, you know, good citizens here and to get good community for you.

[00:24:41]

NF: Well, let’s talk a little bit about some of the specific projects you’ve worked on. So,

I’m interested in learning more about the Asian Cultural Nights. Those began in the mid-nineties and have had happened almost annually. Can you talk a little bit about that annual event; how it began and what it’s for, what types of things you do?

HC: Well, that’s probably one of the most important part playing in the Asian community and IRCO is organizing the Asian Cultural Night. Why is we celebrate that at the first, even in 1996, you know, one year after—so the idea is to celebrate Asian

Heritage Month. May is Asian Heritage Month, so to celebrate the accomplishment of the Asian community in the state of Oregon, and then also to celebrate our success, to raise the visibility, the credibility of our programs. So that’s why our advisory board, our community, our staff started Asian Cultural Night in May. So, the first I—at the first one, we invite the governor, Kitzhaber at that time, one of advisory board was a member of the Commission of Asian and I was a member of the Commission on Asian

Affairs. So, we invite him to be keynote speaker. By bringing the governor to be keynote speaker, at that time instead of five hundred, there were over seven hundred people coming in through the door. The community are very happy. They have been here, they never see the governor. And there was so many people come to see him, and the TV, radio, so it’s boom!, then everyone know Asian Family Center. Beside that, Asian

Cultural Night is to raise the visibility, but also the reputation, the good work that our board, our staff have been doing, bring the reputation, and then the idea is to bring on the community members, community leader, part of that. Five hundred people usually, two hundred community member, and also best thing is we invite the funder on the funding sources and all the mainstream services to work with. So, if it’s very good for, we have been doing very good. And besides, the keynote speaker, each year we invite a different keynote speaker. I think that’s her second year or third year, or even Ron


Wyden that one. He is there in Washington D.C. He just flew from Washington, came back, become the keynote hour speaker, because he is the one who had the idea to, in

1990, I think, what they called Asian Task Force with Ron Wyden then they become our one of milestones, and then the commissioner and key people, one each year. So that I am happy about. But, not only—another one, you saw the program, the one that’s on, you know the program, different program is so the community is all the people. In addition to that, what we call, that seeing the Asian Cultural Night we have the traditional and then the dance, the show; there’s a show from different country - you start from Cambodia, Lao, Hmong, Mien, India, Malaysia, Japanese, Chinese, all the

Asia. So people like to see that one. So at the end it’s a very, very success for me.

NF: And do you take part in coordinating that over the years?

[00:29:55]

HC: I start from the beginning and then you know, for the ten year that I was center coordinator, I was main one, but each year we have the, each one advisory board in the part, they are member, there are staff, they are part of committee. We have the coordinator of the—even, usually my - I make all the planning and we have a goal, we waited in the staff meeting for different community organize.

NF: And over the years, what was the location of the Asian Cultural Night? Was it different each year?

HC: You know, at the beginning we mostly, one of our Asian Cultural Night at we call

Legin Restaurant, and it is 82 nd and Division from, and then the last few year when the

Legin and the PCC Portland Community College bought that one, become the part of it, oh we don’t have any more. So mostly, ninety percent of our evening at—and then one time we do it at Holiday Inn at the airport and then last two year we did in what, I think in downtown, in a hotel. But, most of them, a lot of them held at our—at Legin

Restaurant. At that time, not now.

NF: Great.

HC: We started at, when we did two time at Holiday Inn, but our committee, they really don’t like the way that—they want to eat their—the food also, the Asian food, when they have that, we even like to come culture to eat their Asian food, and then why variety of our food is not so good.

NF: Well, in terms of serving many different Asian communities, within the Asian community there are many different cultures, many different languages, what are some of the challenges of working with so many different cultures, and how do you find the


common themes among the different types of immigrants and refugees that need assistance?

HC: Asian Pacific Islander is so diverse, so many different languages, so many different countries, you know. I think we as the staff have to learn, have to study each one of them, not—well you see our staff here, almost twenty, speak twenty languages. So the first thing is the staff that speak the language, know the culture, know the way, how to communicate with them and deal with them, that first most important to see. You can see, start from even Sokho here, the Cambodian community, even you know, it’s different from Laotian community. The Lao also, you have to see, if say you’re going to go into the Laotian community, you have to know. If you go to see the Hmong community, you—and then the Hmong, they believe not only the mutual assistant association leaders, as they understand our leader, but also the clan leader. They believe in a clan leader tradition, and I think the Mien also, have similar to the Hmong clan leader, and the Lao also different parts; southern part of Lao and have the northern part of Lao. I think the Vietnamese have more diversity - they are so diverse. Beside that, they have different church and temple, the Buddhist, Catholic, so I think in order to work with each community effectively, you have to know the people, know their tradition, know the people. And also, our—the information that we send; we send out a letter, we send out a program with email, with all of that, but I think the most important part in my almost thirty years working with all the community, is through the word of mouth, through the person and one on one contact; this is the most important—effective way, accept, actually mainly for the older people now, the people who don’t read and ones who don’t speak. If you don’t go to them individually, they—but for the younger generation is different. They know the American system; they know the technical, the modern technical, all of that, but younger generation.

[00:35:25]

Now, another challenge that we have, to me, I work with the Lao community, I am the leader in different part of it—formerly, I used to be the Lao Buddhist president of the temple, and for over twenty years. Now, used to be president of the Lao senior, and now the president of Lao association for over twenty years, and one of the thing that we’re still working on what they call intergeneration gap. Intergeneration, we used to have our program here at Asian Family one time, now with there being a younger generation and older generation, how—the younger generation has grown up here, were born here, going to school here, but the parent want them to speak their own language, and even in Lao community I see that. We have to speak more language now.

English and our Lao language. So that’s the challenge one, also, that I can see. So, you have to work with them in each community, usually they have what they call community lead—a mutual assistance association. I think the Vietnamese have more. I don’t—the Lao had about seven mutual assistance association now. The Hmong have—


the Hmong American community and the Mien, I think are another group the same way, but beside the mutual assistance association is set up to support each other, to work together, to help their community and also to have a line in the mainstream service. So, you work with a different—but in addition to the mutual assistance association is also different of church and temple. And the Cambodian I think have

Buddhist temple, the Lao have Buddhist temple, the Vietnamese have different area, so we have to work with all of that - different people.

NF: Right. So, the staff here at the AFC, they’re responsible for various programs and then you have staff members who speak almost all, if not all of the different languages within the Asian Pacific Islander community, correct? So that you have someone who can work with someone if they don’t speak English, you’ll have someone who can speak that language, is that the goal?

HC: Well, that’s one of the goal, but we cannot hire all the, you know, all the—we don’t have budget to hire very much, all the languages, but most of the, we have most of the development, but the staff for the program that they have, working mostly with their own, but if, for example, I am Lao, but the one—Sokho I have working, you know the

Cambodian, but if you have the clients, the parent, the children with Lao, he can interpret, you know, so we support each other. You know, even around the, even the board, advisory board. So if we could not do it and then we call, we get in touch with those who speak their own language, that way we work together.

NF: That’s great. So the staff within—and the advisory board within the AFC is very supportive of one another.

HC: Oh yeah, uh huh.

NF: That’s wonderful. So, let’s talk a little bit about the Coalition of Communities of

Color project and report, that’s something recent that occurred within the last few years, doing research on the Asian Pacific Islander community, were a part of that report in some way? Can you talk a little bit about that?

[00:40:00]

HC: I will talk a little bit, but I would like to leave that for you to interview with Lee Po

Cha, who is the director of Family Center, who is still, I think he is the chair of that one, but you know, I can talk a little bit about that one because I am one of the few who start,

Lee and I were the—represent IRCO from the beginnings, through the forming. I think

Thach also in the beginning. We formed that with, at that time it’s only four community of color, I think Asian, Hispanic, Native American and who is it…what they call, Native

American, and you know, we had four. So, after, I think we form in—I could not ever


actually, in 2001 or 200- like that, and then when—so Lee and I usually went to meeting almost every month at that time, during the first year to form that, but in 19—in 2004 when the family center system, after three year we are working on that, you know, and then they were want to eliminate other family center, so except our board and our IRCO board maintained Asian Family as a—but then no more longer eight family center or eight family center with the mainstream, they become what they call a school-based policy system.

NF: So, the state wanted—

HC: No, no, Multnomah County.

NF: Oh, Multnomah County.

HC: I mean they changed the system, not the same, the program. They set them as school-based policy. I think, well when you talk with Lee he probably can talk more on that one. A school-based system policy like SUN school, all of that. Our staff not only stay at our—here, but also based in the different high school, different school. So, after that we include, we had the funding, acquired the funding, we include Slavic, we include…African refugee, and I think become six now. So, the goal is then to become the one that speak for, work for our different community member together, because, mainly for the voice, for the funding source, and to have different program for all minority group. So that the, and the goal is now is have bring—become a good agency that can attract funding sources, like Sokho is now working on what they call, an Asian

Leadership Institute, this one is through the Meyer Memorial Trust funds. You know, that’s all…and if its, so at that time also, because of the community of color, all that minority get more funding from Multnomah County and Asian Family, they also get more but mainly the African and Slavic, when they became part of that too, we get more funding.

NF: Okay. So this was in the mid-2000s you said?

HC: I think it’s 2001, that I could not remember, actually. It took about two years. But after I retire in 2004, I worked there but not much, so that’s why I would prefer to give you the talk more with Lee, because he is active on that.

NF: Right. Okay, well just a couple more things; so in terms of the types of projects you work on, you work on, oh, AFC works a lot with youth and with seniors and with, regarding health education. Those, I see those as sort of some main topics. What other types of things do you work on generally? So, job training, business training, just in general what other types of work does AFC do?


[00:45:19]

HC: Well, beside the youth program, beside the parenting class, the family, the home, we add on, we also what we call energy assistant; they provide energy support for those from low-income families, it’s ongoing, every year, that’s a development become popular one also. Another one you can see is the information and reference service; you support by—what else do I have…they have a youth program over here. I think now they have more parenting and then the school, mentorship program.

NF: Okay. And do your services only provide assistance within Multnomah County, or do they go beyond the county? If someone needed help outside of the county, would you assist them or is it mostly just for Multnomah county?

HC: Well, it depend on the—most of it is you probably have to—in a program that provide by—funding by Multnomah County, we provide for Multnomah County. They are most of the program funding, by Multnomah County, and then the programs is funding by city of Portland. We have a few, city of Portland now funding. But, if we had the state funding, some of them have funding and, you know, and they are also foundation funding, there are no limits, so they provide to—another area is, we have to go along with the funding sources that we have, the guidelines, you know. It’s not limit, but a majority are the Multnomah County, because Asian Family Center start with

Multnomah County funding and spending, and then you add city, that area, and then you bring some of the state, now we have more from foundation now, that helps, you know, you last another last question, you can talk about what in the future will be of

AFC. It had been start from about 350,000, going up to over 3 million budget, and the staff start with three staff, me and my two staff, and now we have over fifty staff in 19 years, and yeah, I think that’s good, the stability of the AFC.

NF: Great. So, in closing, what recommendations do you have for AFC? So moving forward towards the future, thinking about the work that you can continue to do or new things that you can do, what are some of your personal recommendations?

HC: Well, that you know, working at AFC in the last twenty year, seeing the AFC grow from a small one to the biggest one, you know three that’s a part of all our community, receiving all of the support from the city, county, different funding sources, we are proud, actually I am proud of it, I am proud of the growing, the stability of AFC, you know, and I would just say that AFC is the one stop service center, that what the idea, is one stop and then people can come here to—at the beginning with a few program but there are many need. The needs are so many and even we have over fifty staff right now, it seems there’s more need. So, I would like to see that we, AFC or Asian community, we continually expand our program to meet the need of our community.

There are seeing so many need. There are some community that we have to work with


them and then another one I think we—we should expand our advocacy efforts direct to city, county, state, foundation, and also community, to get more additional funding to the meet, even for example, economy development project now is only we can serve particularly capacity to our community for the whole, not in general, it’s only fifty— yeah, no, thirty businesses. That’s not enough, I think. When I was served seven years with the Ford Foundation and from 2000 and—from 1984 to 1990, for seven years was over 150 business that was a part. Not it’s only we can—so we, we should advocate to look or get more funding. Even the youth program, you know, the SUN school or—I think another one that I would like to see expand more is the - to work with - to coordinate working with our - to bring up the community leadership, to be strong and unified, you know, become the stronger, stronger the Asian community. I’ll probably— we are strong, we are stability, now we need to get more, because you know, ongoing needs, ongoing programs, so we should work together in looking for that, our future of our community.

[00:51:55]

NF: Great. So, is there anything that we have not discussed that you’d like to share, or anything that you would like to share a little bit more, that we talked about?

HC: Well, I have one thing that I am proud, I would like to see it coming, and when we start up Asian Family Center, we have a small grant. Each year we have 10,000 dollar, and in 2004 when the economy is down, so the county stopped you know, that program, so they can support only direct, indirect, small grants got us the indirect funding, so that you know, so and during that period, we provide over seventy-six small grant to our community, lending from five hundred, the maximum is two thousand. So, to all Multnomah community, they did it to give them a way of support, become the seed the money, so they can have the train, the traditional dancing, recreation, any activity to support the community. So I would like to see that in the future, maybe looking for more funding for the small grant. In order to build up, especially now we have trained over one hundred community leaders, we should them, continually support them, seed incentive money to them, and then they can support

AFC or we can work together, because it’s such a very good program, that one thing.

Another one, I’m—during my role at the AFC, I have also said that I have, I was appointed by the governor Kitzhaber for the three term, for seven year, and that become, it’s good for the Asian community, it’s good for the Asian Family Center, become part of that one and become reliability, and also the last one I would like to say is that we’re happy that you are interviewing me today, because one of additional role when working as the AFC center coordinator is I was appointed by the president of

Oregon State University to be board of visitor for almost ten years, and then I make it out. So, at that time I work with different, what they call? The multicultural.


NF: The cultural center?

HC: Cultural center, they meet with the president, with the dean also, with a student, so we would like to have a more Asian student in, not only a few, that we have, that our recommendation. We also would like the university to promote, to maintain the professor of ours, so I’m happy that look, I was, almost every month for six, seven year at OSU on the advisory board so I am happy, you know, to see you, talk to you today.

[00:55:57]

NF: That’s great. Well, before we conclude, Sokho, since you’re here, did you want to ask anything or follow up?

SE: I’m good.

NF: No? Okay, so did we, we covered everything?

HC: I don’t know whether I cover everything. Yeah, I think I covered everything.

NF: Okay.

HC: Well, well, we can add one more? Come back to the leadership, diversity and civic leadership program. You know, one of our goal beside training, the capacity, achieve for them, is our role is the, to keep them, to work not only with the city of Portland but to work with the neighborhood association. That’s one of our goal, to work with community. I think I am one of them, the first organizer but also for other leadership, and right now I am very active on the East Portland Action Plan that I made with them, and also economy development community of East Portland Action, and also Asian community I’m happy to be part of assist the city of Portland to redevelop The Portland

Plan, you know, up to. But there are many other also, like I’d had been working with

Slavic community and Oleg have been working with Mohammed, so ask them, do you want to work more and more to work with our graduates from diversity and to be more active in their community and agency, that one I would hope our coordinate in the future. We would like to work.

NF: Okay, sounds good.

HC: I hope I did a good job [laughs].

NF: Alright, well thank you very much.

[end 00:58:16]


Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization Asian Family Center Oral History Project

Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization

Asian Family Center Oral History Project

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Asian Family Center Oral History Project

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