Word: nhan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Over the summer, Nhan Truong met with Terene Mech, Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn's liaison to the Cambodian community, to discuss the feasibility of the program. Mech introduced Nhan Truong to several Cambodian families in Allston-Brighton. "They [the children] lived in crowded homes. Their parents had to work all day and did not know enough English to help them with their school work," she said. "You always hear about the top Asian students, but these kids were culturally disadvantaged and isolated in so many ways...
...speak or write English well; some of them are too young to have mastered their own language. Poorly equipped to adjust to the new environment, they flounder, struggling to learn in a language and setting totally foreign to them. Recognizing the special help these refugee children need, Nhan Truong '90 has started a tutoring program, serving the refugee children of Allston-Brighton...
Herself a refugee from Vietnam who emigrated to America in 1975, Nhan Truong decided to start the program last summer, while working with Philips Brooks House's Chinatown Adventure Program. Nhan Truong children from Chinatown housing projects in the morning and in the afternoon took them on field trips to expose them to the world beyond the "Combat Zone...
...Nhan Truong recalls that the children who needed the most help were those who had just arrived in the United States. The Lowell House resident decided to start a program to help refugee children. Allston-Brighton seemed perfect for such a program as it has a sizeable refugee community and no local community service program specifically aimed at the refugee children...
...root of their disadvantage, Nhan Truong believes, stems from their language deficiencies and cultural differences as much as from their poverty. Apprehensive of the new environment, they tend to stay within their own neighborhood. Unable to speak English, they are isolated from other children of their age. In school, they often do poorly as their problems with English can mask their true problems with English can mask true learning potential. According to Nhan Truong, the refugee Children develop and "I-can't-do mentality" that makes it difficult for them to raise their own proficiency. "These kids...