“My duty as a citizen”

 

By Ted Meinhover

 

(St. Paul) The Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans has chosen to award 2008’s Lifetime Service Award to Thong Le Ha, to be presented at the annual Asian Heritage Month dinner on May 16th.

 

Even before her family was forced to escape from Southern Vietnam, in the spring of 1979, the twenty four year old Le Ha was already passionate about volunteerism. Her parents, both teachers, instilled in her the belief that it was a citizen’s duty to help the community. As early as the age of thirteen, she and her siblings worked to raise funds for families in Vietnam that needed help, such as military families that had suffered losses and were forgotten by the government. “We went from coffee shop to coffee shop, asking people for whatever small amount they could give.”

 

“I have always felt very passionate about this kind of work,” she said. “I have been very consistent,” continuing to volunteer her whole life.

 

“I was just shocked!” Ms. Ha said, about learning that she had been chosen for the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotan’s Lifetime Service Award. “I always thought my work was just the work of a citizen, that it was an ordinary citizen’s duty.” Though many of her activities do not produce large, quantifiable results that garner a great deal of attention, she “never stopped volunteering.”

 

“Every little step will build a bigger, better future together. This is my vision.”

 

Forced to flee her home in Vietnam, living as a refugee in Indonesia, and finally making the journey to Minnesota in 1980, she has continuously volunteered to improve her community. A trained nurse, Ms. Ha volunteered her medical skills in Indonesia, sometimes helping over 100 patients and fellow refugees a day. On the very last boat, overcrowded with refugees, Thong Le Ha and her family sailed away from their home, community and everything they had, soon finding themselves in an International Red Cross refugee camp on a beach in Indonesia. There were roughly 13,000 people living in tents in unsanitary conditions, she said. “I just couldn’t sit still,” she said, immediately volunteering her time to treat people suffering in the awful conditions.

 

Arriving here in Minnesota in 1980, she has continued to take action to improve the health of the community. No stranger to the hardships many immigrants and refugees go through when relocating to a new country, she joined the Metropolitan Minority Outreach organization. Le Ha, a recent immigrant herself, was trying to balance caring for her elderly mother-in-law who had dementia, attending school full-time, raising two young children, not to mention working to earn a living and build a life. Needless to say, she did not have much free time. Still, she volunteered to help other minority groups and recent immigrants “learn how to take advantage of the opportunities here in the ‘land of opportunity.’”

 

As a child, Ms. Ha dreamed of being a teacher, like her parents. She saw the trouble faced by her parents, though, who were persecuted in Vietnam because of their positions and had to flee the country. “That’s why I went into nursing,” she said. She saw she could “help patients, use your passion to help them heal both physically and emotionally.”

 

Having been forced out of her home and community on the other side of the world, Le Ha talks about what it takes to be successful as an immigrant in a new land and how she wants to help others rebuild their lives. “You have to be involved, and independent. You have to be proud of who you are, and share that with others. We can share with the community.” And share she does, consistently working to build understanding between people and communities. That was the main impetus behind the Ha Family performance group, to share culture and build understanding. The group performs and holds classes for traditional art and athletics such as the lion dance, singing, Qi Gong, Kung Fu, dancing, and others, and is internationally recognized and one of the largest groups in the region. Le Ha speaks of the pleasure she feels when she sees the impact this cultural exposure has on young children.

 

“The problem today,” she says, “is that people don’t understand each other’s culture.” People should give more, volunteer more, she says. “The more I give, the more I feel I have.”

 

One of the biggest challenges Le Ha tries to tackle in each of her activities is this deficiency in cultural understanding. She speaks of the need to “be a bridge,” to preserve one’s old culture as well as pick up the new. Everyone, including new immigrants and established Minnesotans, need to have an open mind, to accept new cultures while at the same time sharing their own cultures. By merging them together, by “being a bridge,” new identities can emerge that are building a better, stronger community.

 

Language is one important element of this bridging, and Le Ha has served on the CAAM Chinese Language School Board as one of the first non-Taiwanese Chinese parents. She later served on the Board as Vice Chair.

 

Le Ha’s efforts have both local and global impact, helping immigrants adapt to life in Minnesota, and this past winter helping to raise funds for victims of the winter disaster that struck a large area of China.

 

Le Ha’s family, including her two daughters Amy and Julie, share her passion for volunteering. Both of her daughters, Amy and Julie, are active in the cultural and educational activities of the performance group, in other non profit organizations, and they even teach Chinese language to students at the language summer camp.

 

“It’s an honor, I never thought I’d get it” she said, talking about the CAPM Lifetime Service Award. She assumed the award went to people who had been recognized for huge, largely publicized projects. In this case, the CAPM is recognizing Thong Le Ha’s consistent dedication to her community, whether in a refugee camp or in the Twin Cities. “I never stopped volunteering. After the award, I will still do the same.”