Reaching into the Community to Rebuild Dreams
APA groups, leaders are helping the unrecognized victims of the hurricanes.
When the water washed away all of their earthly belongings they did as they usually do — they banded together, pooled resources and provided aide to others with familiar faces.
For Asian Pacific Americans living in the Gulf Coast region devastated last month by back-to-back hurricanes, their own community was their only lifeline. Many who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina lived in the shadows of Buddhist temples and supermarkets before being threatened by a second storm. Through the destruction and recovery, they searched for semblances of themselves and their neighbors in the countless news images beamed across the world, but found none.
“The government never paid any attention to us. We’re very underrepresented,” said Minh Nguyen, a 21-year-old New Orleans native who evacuated the city shortly before the first storm.
The news of their frustration spread through the national APA community creating a network of support from some unlikely sources.
Dennis Ngin, a 21-year-old student from the University of Florida, was moved to action by the lack of news coverage focused on the plight of APAs and an influx of appeals in his e-mail inbox to assist the displaced Vietnamese community in Louisiana.
An estimated 50,000 APAs, mostly Vietnamese Americans, lived in the drowned areas.
Ngin called upon his fraternity brothers at Pi Delta Psi to lend a helping hand. They decided to create a Web site (www.therefugeerelief.com) to channel all of the information into a one-stop shop.
“We saw this as an opportune time to assist the community,” said Ngin, 21. “[The site] functions as a symbol that we do care about the refugee community. These people are not alone. Even more, it is young Asian Americans who have taken the charge in helping the refugee community.”
With a stark photo of displaced refugees on its homepage, the site provides a directory of organizations working on the relief efforts and information on how to donate. It is a cause that the national Asian American fraternity said dovetails with one of the pillars of their brotherhood — cultural awareness.
According to Ngin, who is Cambodian American, the site was created specifically to assist the refugee community, many of whom are working-class shrimp fishermen with limited English skills.
And it goes far beyond just listing resources. Countrywide, APAs have answered the clarion call for direct assistance.
Congressman Mike Honda wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff expressing his concern over reports of the DHS using information about the legal status of hurricane victims seeking government assistance. The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) along with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) has set up work centers across the country to help evacuees find jobs. Musical performances dropped notes to raise money and groups set up relief funds.
For the APAs who are picking through the shambles to get back on their feet, a familiar helping hand is the most support they will receive.
“It’s the cultural camaraderie,” said Tram Nguyen, Katrina relief program manager for Boat People SOS, a national organization that provides assistance to the Vietnamese American community.
After the Katrina devastation, the BPSOS office in the Bellaire district of Texas overflowed with APA evacuees who flocked to the office’s location inside the Hong Kong Mall rather than to shelters. The numbers were so overwhelming that BPSOS, which operates seven shelters, signed a temporary lease to open up an annex office down the hall.
After Katrina, they saw several hundred evacuees per day and dispensed up to 300 Hepatitis A vaccinations — a Federal Emergency Management Agency requirement — from its medical center each day. But after Hurricane Rita, BPSOS re-opened its doors to 400 additional displaced families from the Beaumont and Port Arthur area.
“We were on track with Katrina, but now things have become a little more chaotic,” said Nguyen, pointing out that their resources had already reached a critical low after Katrina.
“The desperation for these people is rising.”
The local APA community’s self-sufficiency may be its own undoing.
“Because there wasn’t the initial outcry for help, the government thinks that we can handle it from here out,” said Nguyen, who compares the problem to the model minority myth. “The first two to three weeks [after Katrina], we handled everything on our own, but to be honest without the proper funding our annex office will close at the end of October.”
Now BPSOS is hoping to connect with the Red Cross and FEMA, but have not yet heard back from the federal organizations. To further complicate matters, Katrina victims are entitled to emergency aid, while Rita victims are not. But that doesn’t mean Rita victims are better off.
“They are still without their resources,” said Nguyen.
And even in this hour of need, many victims are still looking for help from their own community.
“It’s a trust issue … that makes them think that it’s better getting help from their own community,” she added.
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