Returnee Integration Support Center [a peek into Daniel's work]

here is re-post of a story that Daniel wrote for the MCC Cambodia blog about his work. To learn more about RISC and how you can support their work, visit their website at www.risccambodia.org

[RISC case worker, Mr. Sarith (on the left), meets with a returnee in Battambang Province, Cambodia]

Returnee Integration Support Center
Posted on December 8, 2011 by MCC Cambodia


The worst of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia’s civil war ended more than 35 years ago. But, the impact of this catastrophe has left fissure lines that continue to stretch out to today. One such line runs from Cambodia, through Thailand, to the USA, and back to Cambodia, where the repercussions continue to be felt.

During the Khmer Rouge-era, Thai refugee camps were filled with Cambodian adults and children fleeing violence and starvation. During the 1980s, the American government responded to this crisis by accepting nearly 200,000 Cambodian refugees.

While the genocide and hunger was safely behind them, for many members of the Cambodian American refugee community, the struggle was not over. Rural Cambodian farmers, often with limited English abilities, were now forced to learn how to live in American cities. With limited options, many of the refugee children learned from – and assimilated into – the local culture of America’s inner cities. Unfortunately, some of these children (now young adults), found their way into the US criminal justice system, serving time for crimes committed.

But the story doesn’t end here. Although these individuals were legally admitted as refugees, and many of them spent almost their entire youth growing up in the US (some having been born in Thai refugee camps shortly before immigration), they were not automatically considered US citizens.

In the 1990′s, US immigration law changed: Now, all non-US citizens with felony convictions would be deported. In the early 2000s, Cambodia began to accept deportations and the removals began. The law is retroactive, applies after serving time in jail – no matter how long ago – and gives no room for judicial review, or consideration of current contributions to society.

The result has been tragic. Families are torn apart, bread-winners taken from their jobs, and returnees (some with mental disabilities) are placed in a country where they often lack the necessary cultural or language knowledge to survive – a second traumatic relocation. Since 2002, nearly 300 individuals have been deported to Cambodia, with thousands more expected. They can never return to the US.

In response, a local organization has been established, called the Returnee Integration Support Center (RISC). RISC provides cultural orientation, temporary housing, job assistance, legal monitoring, emergency medical support and – most importantly – a center where the returnee community can gather together, in addition to receiving many other forms of support.

For the last 5 years, MCC Cambodia has partnered with RISC. We provide funding and advisor support, assist the organization with capacity building, fundraising, and organizational development, and have posted members on its Board of Directors. This has been been one of MCC Cambodia’s most important partnerships: helping to meet a need that falls outside of classic development sectors (HIV/AIDS, gender, environment, etc.), and helping to support and empower a unique and vulnerable community that would otherwise fall through the cracks. To learn more about RISC, visit their website at www.risccambodia.org.

Studio Revolt has produced a powerful short film featuring exiled Cambodian-Americans. View the movie here

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gratitude [go blues!]

[thanks aunt hannah for my first hockey jersey.  

i always thought i'd be a sabers fan, but it turns out that i cheer for the blues - shhh don't tell my uncles.]

& so it goes. [turning 30]

turns out that turning 30 isn't so bad when you get to spend the evening celebrating on a boat along the mighty mekong dancing with beautiful friend to the sounds of  phnom penh's best bluegrass band*.

& noticing a lunar eclipse during the bluegrass version of tiny dancer only makes it that much sweeter. 

* this may be a biased proclamation, but i sure get a kick out of the grass snake union band.  watch all six of them (plue one small child) playing in a tuk tuk driving around the city here with the tuk tuk sessions (one song. one take. one tuk tuk) .

** and thanks to steve chee for the beautiful moonlit photos

snapshots [november 2011]

gratitude [ben & lindsay]

[thanks uncle ben & auntie lindsay for the sweetest & cuddliest veggies!]

[10 months]

at 10 months, baby cedar has taken movement to the next level; he pretty much cannot stay still for longer than 1 second.  he's got crawling totally down & zips all around the house, happy to follow behind whatever adult is around at the moment.  he pulls himself up on absolutely everything & enjoys cruising around that way too.  his cutest new trick is that he's learned how to groove to a beat - current favorite albums are baby beluga, & his half-pint harmoney lullabies.  he is also the proud new owner of 2 teeth & loves playing with cell phones more than any of his toys.

[pinkie up is really the only civilized way to eat a phone]

but his biggest accomplishment this month has been the debut of his first word.  he now proudly says "gai, gai", whenever he sees a dog or hears a bark (which, if you've ever talked to us on the phone you know is ALL the time).  it comes from the cambodian word for dog - ch'gai.  (his pronunciation is great, i just knew it was only a matter of time before his cambodian language skills began to overtake ours.  i've been trying to say that word for 3 years & still can't get it quite right!)

he's also became quite dramatic (see below).  he is not a quiet, sweet little guy anymore.  no, he is really, really LOUD (& ok, still sweet).  whether its just babbling to himself,  telling ming kohm a story, or actually trying to get our attention, this little guy has learned how to make his presence known.

 [expressing himself after he crawled so happily & quickly towards mama's camera & then wasn't allowed to play with it.]

on knowing another culture [3 years in cambodia]

somewhere along the way, i wrote this quote in my journal under the heading 

"on knowing another culture"

When you've been in a place for two weeks you feel you can write a book, 

once you've been there for a few months you're happy if you can get a few coherent paragraphs together 

and after you've been there for many years you're not sure if you can write anything at all.*

this season has been a time of reflection for us, as we've had a break between travels & have also been intentionally trying to carve out more time for rest in our lives. 

as we've come our three-year marker (really? already?) we've been processing a lot.  when we left home, it felt like our 3-year commitment was large & looming & that we would come away from the experience so changed, so different, having learned so much about what it means to go, to follow, to serve, to be among the poor.  

well.... yes & no.  our time here has passed in the blink of an eye, life here has been much easier than we expected - filled with such joy, friendships & travel.  but also harder too as we've had to un-learn a lot of the things, beliefs, assumptions, & cultural certitudes we thought we knew. & we thought were solid docking points & that sort of education can be quite unsettling.    

so, while clarity will likely always elude us as we encounter life in all its complexity, what have we learned after 3 years here in Cambodia? 


o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o 

that a masters degree in development doesn't mean you know to respond to a child begging you for food.  that we are not the ones we've been waiting for. 

that Joy comes with the morning.  

that here & there & everywhere, beauty & brokenness cannot be un-twined.  that genocide, atrocity, violence is not a sudden, distinct evil - its your childhood friend wielding a farming tool & following orders, too afraid to disobey, to risk the consequences.  its us too afraid to speak out & challenge oppression, to risk the consequences.  

that we all, all, all need mercy & grace.

that even when we don our best results-based-management-theory, the outcomes are hard to measure.  that maybe transformation can't be written into a logframe.  that the process is the development.  

that faith is the substance of things hoped for & the evidence of things unseen.

o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o       o    

however, one thing we do know for certain is how unbelievably supported we have felt these past three years.  we have been grounded & blessed by our rock solid communities both at home & our new community here.  thank you for all of your support, encouragement & prayers; our cup has & continues to, overflow.

*i'm not sure where this quote comes from & google is no help - sorry to whoever first said this!
** a disclaimer - actually the bulk of our work takes place in an office, but those pictures are not interesting, so i'm posting the field visit ones!