My 28th Anniversary

On March 6, I will celebrate my 28th anniversary of coming to the US from Vietnam. I want to take this opportunity to share my family’s experience because it illustrates United Way’s work in the community.  

My family arrived to Newton, MA in 1980 after spending 10 months in a refugee camp in Indonesia.  My parents left Vietnam after the war because they wanted a better life for their children.  I’m one of 6 kids (4 of us were born in Vietnam and 2 of us were born in the US).  We were sponsored to the US by a church in Newton. They set us up in a 2 family house for my family and my uncle’s family and my aunt’s family.  We were on welfare for 18 months and during that time, my parents enrolled in ESL classes and vocational training at the local high school. My dad learned welding and my mother electronic testing.  In 1985, they became US citizens as did their children. 

After 7 years of living in this country, my parents knew they had to build up their financial stability to secure a future for their children.  They bought the house we lived in from the church at a discounted price.  Even though the cost of that house was low compared to the market rate, it was still a bit of a financial stretch for my parents with their working class jobs but my parents figured out a way to make it work.  We were very lucky to have a safe place to live with a good school system. 

 My mom was smart about asking for scholarships for her children to do extra curricular activities after school and during the summer—all of which helped to enrich our academic lives and helped us to get into good colleges (now you know where I get my fundraising skills from!). Since my parents had low income jobs, they qualified for discounts on pre-school programs and enrolled my 3 younger siblings in these programs.  The confidence level of my 3 younger siblings in their academic and social skills is much higher than that of their older siblings that didn’t go to pre-school. 

My parents love and commitment to their children along with the investments that the community made in my parents through ESL, vocational training, affordable housing and the access me and my siblings had to high quality pre-school and out-of-school time helped my entire family to thrive.  28 years later, my youngest sibling is a junior in college and me and my other siblings are college graduates and have master’s degrees as well as stable jobs.  (One of my sister’s is a social worker at a hospital in Durham, NC and served on the hospital’s United Way campaign. This fall, she helped the hospital surpass its campaign goal and increased giving 200% from the previous year!)

I’m very proud of my parents for doing all the right things to help me and my siblings to succeed in life.  I’m grateful to have the opportunities that I’ve had.  I feel blessed to be at United Way—it’s a great place for me to express my commitment to social change!  I truly believe in United Way’s holistic approach to helping families—giving both parents and children the tools and opportunities they need to succeed.