by Bunthay Cheam
April is Khmer New Year Month!
While the holiday traditionally takes place April 13–16, the local Khmer diaspora celebrates every weekend of the month. Khmer enclaves dot the I-5 corridor, from Snohomish County all the way down to Vancouver. Many in the community are blue-collar workers who can only celebrate on weekends as Khmer New Year is not an officially recognized holiday and therefore cannot be taken off from work.
Continue reading How to Celebrate Khmer New Year in 2021by Ben Adlin
A year into a pandemic that has killed half a million people in the U.S. and magnified deep inequities in the country’s core institutions, it’s extraordinary that Vicky Navarro and Thyda Ros aren’t more exhausted.
A typical week might find Navarro crisscrossing King County with boxes of face masks and public health pamphlets in three different languages — English, Spanish, and Tagalog — while Ros plans a socially distanced dinner dropoff of deep-fried fish and green mango salad to a Khmer community elder. Then it’s off to the next webinar, the next worried call from a neighbor, the next social media rumor to bat down.
Continue reading Helping Under-Served Communities Navigate Health Barriers During the Pandemic
