FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
VietAID Hosts First of Speaker Series for Commemoration of April 30th
Dorchester, Massachusetts –April 24th, 2018 –The Vietnamese American Initiative for Development in Fields Corner is excited to host a commemoration of April 30th (also known as ‘Black April’ or ‘The Fall of Saigon’) on Saturday, April 28th, 2018 from 6pm-8pm at the Vietnamese American Community Center. The event will be the first of a Speaker Series, wherein Vietnamese American community leaders from diverse backgrounds will be invited to partake in a panel to speak to different topics and issues affecting the diaspora.
The Vietnamese American Initiative for Development was founded in 1994 by community leaders and residents who believed that a community development corporation would provide comprehensive economic development programs and services to alleviate poverty and advance civic participation in the Fields Corner Vietnamese community of Dorchester. VietAID’s mission is to build a strong Vietnamese community and a vibrant Fields Corner through the following measures: promoting civic engagement and community building; developing affordable housing and commercial space; providing small business technical assistance and micro-enterprise development; and offering high quality child care and youth services. In 2002, VietAID opened the Vietnamese Community Center at 42 Charles Street to house its operations and offer space to the community for its activities.
The panel for the event will include 5 different Vietnamese American speakers, including guest speaker and panelist, former Garden Grove Mayor Bao Nguyen. The former Mayor was not only the first Vietnamese American to be elected to that position, but was also an openly gay politician in a widely conservative jurisdiction. The other four joining him are: Carro Hua, VietAID’s Youth Programs Assistant Director, who will also be moderating the panel; Son Ca Lam, a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University; Gabriel Tucker, a biracial immigrant who works at The Home for Little Wanderers; and Kevin Lam, Organizing Director for the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW).
On how April 30th has continued to affect the community, Son Ca Lam shares, “My story is not an isolated or unique one. Our community has survived and continue to do so despite great odds, dreaming of a better future for the children, however blind or impossible amidst the circumstances. We are resilient. Yet, our displacement is on-going: inherited trauma, intergenerational gaps, gentrification, and a deep yearning for a place to wholly belong and call home. The war is over but we have not found peace.”
Former Mayor Bao Nguyen states, “April 30, 1975 was the beginning of the turmoil and tyranny that pushed my family, along with countless others, to imagine a better life beyond the borders of their beloved homeland. Due to the great sacrifices and risks taken for my future, I dream for democracy and justice, not only for my parents’ Vietnam, but for our United States and for our world today.”
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The event will be held in the Great Hall at the Vietnamese American Community Center. Tickets can be found at www.speakerseriesblackapril.eventbrite.com and are a suggested $10. For more details, please visit www.vietaid.org or www.facebook.com/VietAID.