Work Experiences

For the past two years, I have worked at the International Institute of Lowell after school as a Case Manager's Assistance/Translator. For the institute, I provide translation services between Burmese and English to the Case Managers and the clients. The hardest part about my job is that I have to help the Burmese refugees adapt to the new culture, language, employment and laws, which is also hard for them to do because everything is so new to them. Since I work at the International Institute as the only teenager on the team, it is very hard for me to conduct myself accordingly and to deal with many cases that require much thought and consideration. For example having to work with and on behalf of elders is challenging because of the cultural respect that a young person has to have for elders, and yet when I am working with the elders as a team member it is hard for me to say much on any issue. Most of our clients like myself are survivors – survivors from the impossible and the unthinkable situations which forced them to leave their native country and flee to the United States.  Life in America is better but they still struggle to meet basic needs – Food stamps, Mass Health insurance, Welfare, affordable housing, fuel assistance, WOMEN INFANT CHILDREN nutrition benefits. These are some of the specific things that I help our clients apply for. For a teenager as myself, it is very unusual to be concerned about these things, but for me it is my routine of how I help people day after day. It is not uncommon for someone to call me or come to me for help, such as one situation when one of my client's children was sick and he didn't know what to do, so he called me in the middle of the night and I had to get up and go to his house and called 911. The child was taken to a hospital and I followed with the ambulance because the hospital does not have any translators available at that time, and I had to stay at the hospital until 4:00 AM until the child was transported to Boston for further examinations. Those are the kinds of work I do in the United States to help people who had to flee their homes and country in order to survive. And I proud to tell that I have helped some 200 Burmese families in the U.S and I will continue to strive for them..

Picture by: borondy.com

The end of Camps, the beginning of Hell!

Malaysia was burning hot. The heat was unbearable even for native born Malaysian, the country is geographically located on the equator line. I lived in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia for about two years. The memories are not pleasant. Everyday I had to live in fear, in fear of getting arrested, in fear of being robbed, in fear of violence. After all I was a illegal immigrant and I didn't belong to any countries. For the first six months, my sister and I was confined to our apartment because my parents were too nervous to let us out and roam around the city. They feared that we will get into trouble and they may never see us again. But eventually they realized that they had to take the risk because we needed some sort of education and to be socially accommodated. Therefore we had a chance to attend a UN based organization called ACR (Alliance of Chin Refugees) which offered basic English and Math classes. We were very excited that we finally had a chance of getting involved in a community of refugees because all the students were refugees from different parts of Burma and we all related to one another because of our similar backgrounds. We immediately became assimilated and took parts in various activities that will change my life forever. I started to communicate and get involve with the teachers, who are from Britain, Scotland, Australia, Malaysia and the United States. The teachers were volunteering their time and resources for us, the refugees and as time progresses I became a very good English speaker and started to become a translator for them. I translated everyday lessons for the younger kids and I would sit in their classes with the teachers and help them and the kids started to address me as a "teacher" although I didn't deserve the title, what could I've said? the kids will be very disappointed if I tell them I was not a teacher because they liked the fact that I was in class and teaching them whenever the real teachers weren't able to teach. So I became the little kids' "teacher" and I taught them what I knew which was mainly English, and some basic math such as adding, and subtracting. I know that I wasn't qualified to teach them about subjects that I wasn't good at but I didn't have a choice, the organization didn't have substitutes and I was there everyday so I did what needed to be done. The kids have nowhere else to go but to come to school and play with the other kids, their parents were too busy with work and couldn't babysit them and I felt that urge to take care of the kids and help them learn somethings that I know to make the best use of their time in school.When I left ACR to come to the United States there were still a lot of kids remained who were still struggling to leave Malaysia. Because of the hearts of the volunteers, I was motivated to become a volunteer in the United States for the Burmese people who doesn't speak English and the volunteer teachers back in Malaysia are my role models..

"There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer." Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle