UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL
CENTER FOR LOWELL HISTORY
INDOCHINESE REFUGEES FOUNDATION, INC. COLLECTION, 1957-1996
UML 1
EXTENT: 19 records boxes, 1 half Hollinger box, 1 flat box.
ABSTRACT:
The Indochinese Refugees Foundation, Inc. (IRF) provided services to Southeast Asian refugees that were resettling in Lowell, Massachusetts during the 1980s, due to the ramifications of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge. This collection includes detailed reports, financial records, correspondence, and resources that reveal the extent of the IRF’s work assisting refugees and its members’ involvement in the Lowell community.
Some items in the collection have been digitized: https://umlseada.omeka.net/collections/show/1
The Indochinese Refugees Foundation, Inc. (IRF) was a nonprofit, mutual assistance association established in 1977 that provided services to aid Southeast Asian refugees who were resettling in the greater Lowell, Massachusetts area during the 1980s. These refugees, mainly from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, fled their countries due to the ramifications of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge, or what was known as the Indochina Refugee Crisis.
The IRF was established in 1977 by Hai Ba Pho and Lan Tuyet Pho, a Vietnamese couple who lived in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. The foundation’s most active years of assisting refugees were from 1980-1985. The main services they provided were job placement, job training, and English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, but they also provided other services when possible, such as translator services, housing placement, donation drives, and community-building support. The IRF received government funding to provide these services to refugees first through an initiative called the Indochinese Self-Help Project (ISHP, 1980-1982), and subsequently through a slightly reduced program, called Indochinese Education and Employment Services (IEES, 1983-1985). These two programs were headed by a Project Director. Jacqueline Fidler (Jacqueline Moloney, current Chancellor of UMass Lowell), served as director of the ISHP from 1980-1981. The second director, Carol Keirstead, saw the service programs out to their end. By 1985, the IRF stopped receiving funding and responsibility for any services still being provided was handed over to respective ethnically-based mutual assistance associations, such as the Cambodian Mutual Assistant Association (CMAA), an organization still active in Lowell today.
Although the IRF closed, Hai and Lan Pho were still actively involved in advocating for rights and services for Southeast Asian refugees in Massachusetts. Both were faculty at UMass Lowell and donated the Indochinese Refugees Foundation, Inc. archives to the university. The archives contain the IRF’s records from its brief life span, but also documents through the 1990s that provide insight into the Phos continued involvement with Southeast Asian resettlement in Lowell, such as Hai Pho’s time serving on Governor Dukakis’s Advisory Council on Refugees; Lan Pho’s involvement in public education; and both of their work in relation to UMass Lowell as well as several artifacts, photographs, and 1950s newspaper clippings.
The records are divided into five series, including: Services Provided, 1980-1985; Correspondence, 1981-1984; Financial and Personnel Records, 1977-1986; Subject Files, 1976-1996; Artifacts and Photos, 1957, 1981, n.d.
Series 1, Services Provided, 1980-1985. This series is meant to encapsulate the work done by the IRF to provide mainly employment and education services to Southeast Asian refugees in the greater Lowell area. Documents are limited to the IRF’s active years of providing services through state funding.
Sub-series 1, Indochinese Self-Help Project, 1980-1982. Mainly includes proposals for funding of the ISHP to the state, funding award notifications, and progress reports sent to the state.
Sub-series 2, Indochinese Education and Employment Services, 1983-1985. Mainly includes proposals for funding of the IEES program to the state, funding award notifications, and progress reports sent to the state.
Sub-series 3, Job Placement and Training, 1980-1985. Under the Indochinese Self-Help Project and the subsequent Indochinese Education and Employment Services program, the IRF provided employment services to Southeast Asian refugees in Lowell. Mainly includes job postings, job applications, and job training reports. Note: Most of these records are undated, but were likely from the IRF’s active years.
Sub-series 4, ESL, 1981-1984. Under the Indochinese Self-Help Project and the subsequent IEES program, the IRF provided English as a Second Language courses to Southeast Asian refugees in Lowell. Mainly includes course information, teaching materials, and reports.
Series 2, Correspondence, 1981-1984. Includes the majority of IRF correspondence during its active years, mainly organized in chronological order.
Series 3, Financial and Personnel Records, 1977-1986. Includes the internal records kept by the IRF, mainly financial papers such as payroll, billing, budgets, bank statements, checks, and taxes; but also some personnel files and legal documents. Alphabetical by file.
Series 4, Subject Files, 1976-1996. This series is meant to encapsulate the work that members of the IRF did to help Southeast Asian refugees outside of the services they were explicitly receiving funding to administer. Includes some documents from the IRF’s active years (1980-1985), and documents that pre-date or follow this period. Mainly includes documents related to cultural programs; conferences or workshops attended; reports by other institutions; outreach to community members, Lowell’s schools, or government officials; resources for refugees in their native languages; and other resources. Primarily arranged alphabetically.
Series 5, Artifacts and Photos, 1957, 1981, n.d. These records mainly include photographs (both color and black-and-white) taken of refugees, their children, and the job training sites related to the Lowell Lingerie curriculum and the Bedford Glen Hotel curriculum. Also included are several artifacts such as foreign currency, stamps, and matches; and newspaper clippings.
For a listing of related collections at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and elsewhere, please visit: https://www.uml.edu/Research/SEA-digital-archive/related-collections.aspx.
For more information about the SEADA, please visit our home page at www.uml.edu/seada, or email us at seada@uml.edu.
