Phun: Can you introduce yourself and your journey with Families in Good Health?
Sambo: I started working with Families in Good Health back in 2012 as a volunteer. I was in college at the time and wanted to be a teacher, specifically a physical education teacher. Volunteering then turned into a full-time position with FIGH, which really connected what I wanted to do. For the past 10 years, I have run our youth program called Educated Men with Meaningful Messages (EM3). This program started out in the early 1990s educating young men and specifically Southeast Asian men about teen pregnancy prevention and the harmful impacts of tobacco.The years spent working for EM3 fulfilled my dream of being a high school teacher and I wanted to do more. I am now the Community Outreach Specialist and I work primarily with Cambodian adults and seniors by helping them engage in the services provided at FIGH, such as our Community Wellness program. We are supporting their mental and physical health through various activities and workshops. One of our main activities is a walking group and potluck, where we exercise together, eat, and then talk about how our lives are going because a lot of our seniors deal with feelings of isolation. I feel really fulfilled in this work because it was my goal to be a high school teacher, and now I am passing the torch to the new folks that are doing the work. My goal now is to engage our youth program and our adult program to flourish intergenerational connections because I see this gap of understanding between youth and seniors. Despite their different generations, they have similar challenges– such as feeling alone and not being heard. FIGH is showing them how we must celebrate each other by coming together and breaking bread with one another through our various events, such as the walking group.
Phun: Who is your community?
Sambo: Growing up in Long Beach, which has one of the largest Cambodian populations outside of Cambodia, I’ve thought about the struggles that my community experiences and why we have so many challenges and barriers. It was not until working at FIGH that I learned about the stories that are not in books or videos. A lot of leadership has been done by survivors of the Cambodian genocide, and many of our elders and leaders struggle to process the trauma. I grew up in a time when we were not united, and I questioned whether to be involved in this work. But I realized my power in uniting people together and helping uplift one another. My power is building community.
Phun: You were recently a panelist for an exhibit called “Journey Shared” in Long Beach that explores the experiences of Cambodian American refugees to Long Beach and the experiences of African American migrants from the South to Long Beach. What did being part of that panel mean to you?
Sambo: I was a part of “Journey Shared”, and the purpose of this exhibit was to bring the African American community, the Latinx community, and the Cambodian community together through art. We explored our migration stories to Long Beach, and I was invited as a panelist to talk about how we can be a more united Long Beach community. I shared about my work at FIGH and specifically about the runs that I lead through a run club. Run clubs in the area are popular, but the 6th District, which is Central Long Beach, has lacked a community space, and I wanted to change that through a run club and to encourage folks to meet their neighbors.
Phun: FIGH is part of SEARAC’s CA Policy Seeding and Leadership Cohort. What do you hope to learn from this 9-month applied learning experience?
Sambo: I didn’t go to school for political science or public policy and policy advocacy is a skill that I want to grow and understand more. SEARAC has led a lot of work in advocacy, and when FIGH joined the Collaborative, we have been a supporting partner. Being part of the Cohort has allowed me to learn something as simple as “SB” meaning that a bill came from the Senate. necessarily in. My primary role is supporting our community members, and the better and more knowledgeable I am of the information that’s being shared, the better I can mobilize folks.
Phun: What does the upcoming 50-year anniversary of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement in the United States mean to you?
Sambo: Yes, it’s an incredible milestone. I think we are finally coming together to celebrate and uplift our stories. I think in previous years we’ve all been going through our own challenges and focused on our own silos. Having SEARAC and a lot of other organizations that connect Southeast Asian Americans together reminds me of our strength. This next year will mark 50 years of being united, and we are much stronger now than we were many, many years ago. I think a lot of us have provided a foundation to help our communities.