Cambodian group aids influx of immigrant residents [to Lowell]

By Olesia Plokhii, 

Special to The Lowell Sun

Updated:   11/05/2012 

Students attend Kathy Bryne's class on English as a second language recently at CMAA. Sun/ Bob Whitaker
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LOWELL -- Faced with diminishing government funding, the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association, a staple for social-service support for the Khmer community in Lowell for nearly three decades, is doing more with less.

The agency's budget has been sliced from $2.8 million in 2001 to $495,000 today. The staff, numbering 37 in 2001, is down to six full-time workers.

Despite the squeeze, Executive Director Rasy An said the association is faring better than expected. It has begun serving non-Khmer immigrant communities, managed to introduce several new programs and intensified outreach efforts to a network of municipal leaders.

The purpose, An said, is to accomplish what the agency failed to do in 28 years: engage the

CMAA's Rasy An at the CMAA's Cross St. offices recently. Sun/Bob Whitaker

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Cambodian community in life outside Cambodia Town.

"We have to start empowering people and engaging them," An said from the CMAA's office on Cross Street recently. "We have to reach critical mass."

The CMAA was founded in 1984 as a response to a rapidly growing Cambodian-refugee population escaping war and genocide during the 1970s and '80s. It serves 8,000 people annually.

An was one of those refugees. He endured two years working as a forced farm hand in the country when he was barely a teen. He said he was 9 when he saw his father shackled by the ankles in a prison. He would never see him again. Later, An was separated from his family and told that his brother starved to death in a work camp.

In 1979, at the onset of the Vietnamese "liberation" of Cambodia, An was reunited with his mother and another brother.

"It wasn't dramatic, it was just, 'Oh, you're alive, good,' " An said about seeing his family. "You see a lot of bad things."

His experience was not unlike those of tens of thousands of Cambodian refugees who arrived in different parts of the United States after the war.

Having arrived in Lowell in 1985 from San Diego, An began working at Pailin Market, a family-owned grocery store that has expanded into a sprawling multipurpose shopping center. He went to Lowell High School and later received an MBA from Rivier College. Married for 14 years, An has two daughters and lives in Westford.

An said CMAA offers English classes, support for young mothers, citizenship training, health literacy, homeownership assistance, discrimination workshops and elder care. A key goal is to get Cambodian Americans involved in the broader Lowell community, such as registering to vote and civic participation.

"The cultural barrier is there," he said about thousands of Khmers living under the radar in Lowell. "We want to take them out of their shell."

In 30 years, two Cambodians have been elected to City Council, Rithy Uong in 1999 and Vesna Nuon in 2011. An said lack of representation also extends to the national level, where important decisions are made about funding organizations like his.

"We want to get to that funding table and have a voice," An said, "because no one is advocating for us."

He said a recent decision by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement not to renew a five-year, $1 million grant program could have been avoided if more Cambodian groups lobbied the government or had positions of power. An official from the refugee office said he didn't know why CMAA was denied funds this year, but added that the ballooning number of nonprofit organizations dealing with increasing numbers of refugees makes funding more competitive.

An said funding is critical because the CMAA is serving new Burmese, African and Iraqi refugees and it is putting a strain on the agency.

"There are income disparities in Lowell and no one is bridging the gap," An said. "There is potential for us to do that."

In spite of the cutback, the center launched a new program aimed at mentoring Cambodian youth. The young-professionals program partners students from local universities with CMAA board members. The objective is to build a generation of Cambodian leaders who will be able to advocate on behalf of their struggling peers.

Metrey Keo, a lawyer at Marcotte Law Firm who runs the program, said his mentoree, David Khom, 22, is a senior at UMass Lowell studying business.

"He's already ahead of the curve," Keo, 38, said at Tepthida Khmner restaurant, where he sat opposite Khom during an interview-style exercise aimed at getting to know each other.

Khom is the first in his family to get a university education and is interested in pursuing a master's and starting an advertising firm. He's unsure about being a pioneer for the Cambodian community but wants to make his parents proud.

"Lowell has given me such opportunity and I just want to give it back," said Khom.

Kevin Coughlin, executive director of the Greater Lowell Health Alliance and president of the CMAA board, is confident Khom and his peers would, like other immigrants that shaped Lowell's diverse cultural fabric before them, lead the city to a new plateau -- and lift themselves up while they were at it.

"This is the time for our Cambodian residents," Coughlin wrote in an email to The Sun. "It is their time to move from 'refugees to advocates.' They are the next generation to take Lowell to its next chapter."