From: tnguyen@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Thang Nguyen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: Answer to anh Hung on LAVAS/SOS
Date: 8 Oct 92 20:11:30 GMT
Reply-To: tnguyen@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Thang Nguyen)
Organization: Carderock Division, NSWC, Bethesda, MD

Dear netters:

Yesterday anh Hu\ng (now I know his name, I did not yesterday) raised
a number of valid points. I responded to him but anh Ha?i and another
netter said that they did not see the posting. So, I repost it below.

Anh Ha?i also forwarded to me a question from a netter on why LAVAS
did not use the money raised at the last fundraising dinner to sponsor
the lawyer. The reason, as you see below, is that LAVAS has a separate
account (and a separate budget) from Boat People S.O.S. That fundraising
dinner was to raise money for Boat People S.O.S. and not LAVAS.

The question raises another interesting point. Why doesn't LAVAS use
the money in its account to support this lawyer? The answer is that
LAVAS budget is very tight and we only take volunteers (lawyers and
legal assistants) on a long term commitment. We prefer our volunteers
to commit at least 6 months to save on airfare. We cannot afford to
support someone going for only one month (like La^n) or two months.
However, it is very rare to have Vietnamese lawyers volunteering to
go. We don't want to turn them down. Vietnamese lawyers, after their
short tour of duty, will be an asset to their community. They can bring
insight on the situation back to their community. They can help inform
the community of how to best help the boat people. They can continue
to help many cases after their return. They can set up a LAVAS office
in their home town or can initiate a similar legal project (independent
of LAVAS.)

Also, their presence in the camps can say a lot. Last year, I went with
several lawyers to all the camps in Southeast Asia to take up a number
of cases. In High Island Detention Centre, Hong Kong, I was asked why
Vietnamese lawyers were not coming? The boat people said that they saw
non-Vietnamese lawyers coming to help them but never a Vietnamese lawyer.
I didn't know how to respond.

In summary, there are a lot of reasons to send Vietnamese lawyers to
the camps but we cannot afford to finance them. Small projects
like this can be best handled by groups like SCV or VSAs, as suggested
by ba.n Hu\ng. Breaking a large project into pieces and letting each
group handle a small piece or two make things more manageable.

I hope that my answer makes sense.

Cordially,
Thang

=================================================================


Dear H.:

Thank you for the advises. Indeed, for the past year we have tried to
contact VSAs but without too much success. We sent out a letter to each
VSA with a thick info. packet on LAVAS to ask for support. No VSA responded.
I guess that the amount of info. we sent out was just overwhelming and
took time to read through.

I definitely believe in the strength and resources of VSAs. For that
reason, I will go to California during the Thanksgiving week to talk
to VSAs and other Vietnamese organizations. Please help set up meetings,
seminars, talks, discussion sessions, interviews, or just informal chats,
whatever you feel most comfortable with and most effective, and let
me know. I will come and participate. Without assistance from people
like you, I cannot, repeat cannot, make contact with a broad spectrum
of people.

There are a few points that you raised that need to be addressed. Since
other SCVers might have the same observations, I would like to bring
them out to the public, i.e., on SCV.

First, there is the issue of the relation between LAVAS and Boat People
S.O.S. Since its formation till now, LAVAS is a subproject of Boat People
S.O.S.  However, it is autonomous with a separate budget, separate account,
separate executive committee, separate advisory board... You can think
of Boat People S.O.S. as serving as the legal and fiscal agent for LAVAS
which otherwise is a separate entity. I would like to add that LAVAS
is in fact a joint project of seven organizations in the USA and Canada,
of which Boat People S.O.S. is but one.

The reason for this arrangement is because it takes quite a long time
to get LAVAS established and get tax-exempt status. Due to the emergency
situation facing the boat people, we could not afford to go slow. The
above arrangement is only a means to get LAVAS fully operational as
soon as possible. That arrangement is only temporary.
By December of this year, LAVAS will fully separate
from SOS to become an independent legal entity (SOS might continue to
serve as its fiscal agent until LAVAS gets tax-exempt status.) After
one year of full operation, we believe that LAVAS is well established
enough to stand on its own feet. So, the LAVAS volunteer that you have
talked to was not totally wrong. And you are basically right too.

Second, there is the issue of S.O.S. being well known in the community in
Southern California. I have not much to say but that the one that you
referred to might not be the one that I am working with. There are two
two different organizations with almost the same name. One is Boat People
S.O.S. Committee while the one I work with is Boat People S.O.S., Inc.
The two are separate legal and financial entities although connected.
We used to be the Wash. DC Chapter of Boat People S.O.S. Committee,
which is headquarted in San Diego. In October of 1990, that SOS stopped
operating. As a branch of that organization we legally had to stop our
existence too. However, we immediately formed a new organization, totally
independent of the SOS Committee. We intentionally chose a similar name,
"Boat People S.O.S., Inc." for the sake of continuity. A sudden change
of affiliation would be perceived by the international agencies and
governments as a disruption in our effort. (An example, I was working
on several cases of refugees being denied refugee status. Just imagine
what the Hong Kong authorities would think if they receive a follow
up letter on those cases from me but now representing a totally unheard
of organization.) We therefore
accepted the risk of possible confusion (being mistaken with the other
SOS) but that is the sacrifice we had to take to carry on with our task.

Third, there is the issue of motivation. Boat People S.O.S., Inc. is
a humanitarian organization which stays above politics. The major activity
of Boat People S.O.S. is advocacy and public information. LAVAS has
a totally different mandate. Its sole mandate is to provide professional
legal assistance to boat people, and no advocacy. This is another reason
why LAVAS is essentially an autonomous project, even under S.O.S.

Now, back to VSAs, especially your VSA. I would like to stress that
LAVAS is a project jointly sponsored by many organizations and supported
by several others. LAVAS continues to invite more organizations to join,
either as a sponsoring organization or a supporting organization. LAVAS
is simply too big a project for any one organization; it needs the support
of the entire community. Project Ngo.c is a sponsoring organization,
but only one among many. Therefore, supporting LAVAS does not mean supporting
Project Ngo.c, which has many more activities beside its role in
LAVAS. So, if your VSA likes it, please join in. I will send you info.
on LAVAS, on the duties and rights of a sponsoring organization, of
a supporting organization... at your request.

I will contact La^n and the LAVAS office in Orange County to ask them
to contact each VSA, as you have suggested. I know that La^n is trying
to do that but, with limited resources, he can do only so much. Please
join with the team and please invite your friends too. If that office
has a representative(s) from each VSA, that will be great. You can come
to their weekly meetings and see for yourself how LAVAS works, what
it is all about. Please participate, we need you,just as we need everyone
out there who cares.

I will ask Christina Tran, the secretary of LAVAS/Orange County, to
contact you via email. I have not met her. I only know her through SCV.
She offered to help and ended up founding the LAVAS office in Southern
California (along with others like La^n, of course.)

Thank you for your good advises. I will go and meet with VSAs. I will
talk to their officers over the phone. I will write to them.I will ask
others in LAVAS to do the same. But I need your help.


Cordially,
Thang.
=================================================================
Message from hho from USC:


Anh Thang, & ca'c anh chi. Lavas,

Is Lavas operating under SOS or as a separate organization?
To my understanding, Lavas is a separate organization, with its own budget.
If Lavas is a separate organization, I think you should make it clear
to the Lavas volunteers and the public. I talked to one of the volunteer
and he insists that Lavas is a part of SOS and working with Project Ngo.c
(UCI)..

SOS is little bit well known in Nam Cali (at least more than other for
good or for bad, I don't know:-))).
While Project Ngo.c has its own funding (or fundraising)..

After working with most of the VSA and THSVVN, perhaps they are the best
source of fund raising for Lavas. Speaking from the point of view of VSA,
we have the man power, and the energy to raise fund using dances and
big va(n nghe^... We are very reluctant to support SOS, because of the
community politics. College students hate to be involve in the politics
of the Vietnamese community. Project Ngo.c is a UCI project, therefore
it is hard for other VSA to support it. Last year for USC, we went up to
Sanjose to raise fund for the Orphan project.

As for VSA/THSVVN activities:

Each fall, all VSAs (& THSVVN now) have Cafenight which drawn not only
their members but all the college students in southern cal (100-500 each)
Then, there are dances. The common trend is to have the dance at night
clubs in Little Saigon (no hassel with security, cleanup etc).. This
Friday, UCLA is having one, and Saturday CalPoly Pomona too.
Then, 2nd semester, from the 1/1/9x to summer everyone is working on
DDa.i nha.c ho^.i va(n nghe^. for the community during Te^'t, 30/4
or specialize like Long Beach Hoa Ha^.u a'o da`i (last week),
UCLA for Te^'t (that is a gigantic one), USC & OCC for 30/4, CSUN
& CSULA for va(nnghe^.... & there are over 30 official VSAs around Little
Saigon.

The main purpose of those events is not only to make money but to draw
the people, student, or the community. Most VSA will be happy
to raise fund for you as long as you are not politically motivated, and
furnish all the info. Just for USC & OCC 30/4 events, we raised over
2K. Most big va(n nghe^. are free to the public.

PR/fund raising is pretty easy if only Lavas can get in to the activities
of the VSAs, visit all the vsas, and work with each VSA individually, not
from THSVVN point of view :-)) Last year La^n came to THSVVN meetings
and he got some support from THSVVN.. BUt if Lavas came to every school,
it'll get more support :-)

These are just my observations, good luck :-)
H.