Sophea Srun, left, who moved from Cambodia, shares a laugh with her daughters Madeline Srun, 5, center, and Leakhena Moeur, 14, right, at St. Julie Asian Center in Lowell, Mass., Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006. Sophea Srun and Madeline studied at the center. The center is closing on September after over 20 years of serving the Cambodian community in Lowell. Their building is in disarray, and the Catholic sisters who run the center have not been able to raise the funds to keep up operations. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)By Ling Liu,
Associated Press Writer
The Boston Globe (Mass, USA)
August 25, 2006
LOWELL, Mass. --Sophea Srun was just a child in 1975 when her family fled the communist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. They crossed into Vietnam, where they stayed for 12 years before returning to Cambodia. In 1997, Srun, her husband and their 5-year-old daughter decided to join Srun's brother in the United States.
"This is my third time to learn a new language," said Srun, 38, who speaks fluent Khmer, Vietnamese and English. The part-time hairdresser has spent the past seven years taking English and computer classes at St. Julie Asian Center in Lowell, which recently announced it will close its doors on Sept. 1.
"I learned fast English because of this school and now they close. I feel so sad," Srun said Thursday afternoon, as she walked through the empty hallways and classrooms at the center.
The bookshelves are barren, the walls have been stripped of charts and drawings. Books, toys and donations of clothes and toothbrushes are strewn about. Some have already been boxed and bagged.
"You can just picture the students there," said Sister Janet Deaett, 55, director of the center. "It was such a great group of people."
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a Roman Catholic order that runs the center, have just lost a two-year battle to save St. Julie. In 2004, one of the center's biggest backers, the Notre Dame de Lourdes parish, was closed in a consolidation move by the financially troubled Boston Archdiocese.
Since then, the sisters have relied on donations and grants to cover operational expenses and equipment. They held fundraisers and searched for smaller buildings to house their center. The four sisters at St. Julie sacrificed their salaries and live on basic monthly stipends.
The center, located in a former firehouse, is showing its age. The 7,500-square foot, 114-year-old building has peeling paint and torn window screens. In May, heavy rains caused plaster and wood to fall from the ceiling of one of its classrooms. Ceiling tiles droop over the first floor atrium.
In June, they brought in consultants to assess the state of the building. The results weren't good. It would cost at least $700,000 to repair the dilapidated center in order to meet fire codes and other regulations.
The sisters opened St. Julie Asian Center in 1985 to serve the burgeoning Southeast Asian population in Lowell. Ninety percent of the center's students are Cambodian, and three-fourths are women. Today, 21.2 percent of Lowell's population is Asian-American, according to 2005 U.S. Census data. The vast majority came from Cambodia in the 1980s in a refugee resettlement program.
Until this past June, St. Julie offered English, computer, math and citizenship classes. An early child development class and daycare allowed mothers to attend classes during the day or evenings. Every Tuesday morning, a family session revolved around topics such as diabetes, tuberculosis screenings, job applications or school registration.
Every Cambodian New Year, Chinese New Year, Thanksgiving and Christmas, over 100 students and their families gathered in St. Julie's meeting room to celebrate. Though most Cambodians are Buddhist, St. Julie's teachers helped parents understand traditional American holidays that their children are exposed to at school.
The decision earlier this month to shut down came as a shock to the center's staff.
"Feelings will continue to erupt at various stages," said Deaett, who has learned to say common phrases in Cambodian. Deaett had already prepared fliers for class registration in September. Now she and the staff are making calls to their 300 students to break the news.
"I'm sad, really sad," said Muny Khou, 51, who moved to the United States from Cambodia in 1992. Khou, a former rice farmer from Battambang province, said that not knowing English made life in the U.S. scary.
"I go on the street, hard to speak English. I go to the store, I don't know what to call things," she said.
Khou took two years of English, computer and citizenship classes at St. Julie before she was hired as the center's secretary. Last year, Khou, her husband and son all became U.S. citizens.
"I felt happy. I felt important," she said of her ability to communicate in English.
Though there are other programs that offer English language classes and computer training to immigrants in Lowell, St. Julie students say their classes are more suitable for students who need to start with their basic ABCs.
Nara Vibol, who has taken two years of classes at the center, added that St. Julie is located in Lowell's Lower Highlands neighborhood, where most of the Cambodian community lives. Many of the students don't have cars and are able to walk to the center. But Vibol, 24, said the community isn't just losing an effective program or a convenient location.
"It's more than a school," she said. "It's a family."
"This is my third time to learn a new language," said Srun, 38, who speaks fluent Khmer, Vietnamese and English. The part-time hairdresser has spent the past seven years taking English and computer classes at St. Julie Asian Center in Lowell, which recently announced it will close its doors on Sept. 1.
"I learned fast English because of this school and now they close. I feel so sad," Srun said Thursday afternoon, as she walked through the empty hallways and classrooms at the center.
The bookshelves are barren, the walls have been stripped of charts and drawings. Books, toys and donations of clothes and toothbrushes are strewn about. Some have already been boxed and bagged.
"You can just picture the students there," said Sister Janet Deaett, 55, director of the center. "It was such a great group of people."
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a Roman Catholic order that runs the center, have just lost a two-year battle to save St. Julie. In 2004, one of the center's biggest backers, the Notre Dame de Lourdes parish, was closed in a consolidation move by the financially troubled Boston Archdiocese.
Since then, the sisters have relied on donations and grants to cover operational expenses and equipment. They held fundraisers and searched for smaller buildings to house their center. The four sisters at St. Julie sacrificed their salaries and live on basic monthly stipends.
The center, located in a former firehouse, is showing its age. The 7,500-square foot, 114-year-old building has peeling paint and torn window screens. In May, heavy rains caused plaster and wood to fall from the ceiling of one of its classrooms. Ceiling tiles droop over the first floor atrium.
In June, they brought in consultants to assess the state of the building. The results weren't good. It would cost at least $700,000 to repair the dilapidated center in order to meet fire codes and other regulations.
The sisters opened St. Julie Asian Center in 1985 to serve the burgeoning Southeast Asian population in Lowell. Ninety percent of the center's students are Cambodian, and three-fourths are women. Today, 21.2 percent of Lowell's population is Asian-American, according to 2005 U.S. Census data. The vast majority came from Cambodia in the 1980s in a refugee resettlement program.
Until this past June, St. Julie offered English, computer, math and citizenship classes. An early child development class and daycare allowed mothers to attend classes during the day or evenings. Every Tuesday morning, a family session revolved around topics such as diabetes, tuberculosis screenings, job applications or school registration.
Every Cambodian New Year, Chinese New Year, Thanksgiving and Christmas, over 100 students and their families gathered in St. Julie's meeting room to celebrate. Though most Cambodians are Buddhist, St. Julie's teachers helped parents understand traditional American holidays that their children are exposed to at school.
The decision earlier this month to shut down came as a shock to the center's staff.
"Feelings will continue to erupt at various stages," said Deaett, who has learned to say common phrases in Cambodian. Deaett had already prepared fliers for class registration in September. Now she and the staff are making calls to their 300 students to break the news.
"I'm sad, really sad," said Muny Khou, 51, who moved to the United States from Cambodia in 1992. Khou, a former rice farmer from Battambang province, said that not knowing English made life in the U.S. scary.
"I go on the street, hard to speak English. I go to the store, I don't know what to call things," she said.
Khou took two years of English, computer and citizenship classes at St. Julie before she was hired as the center's secretary. Last year, Khou, her husband and son all became U.S. citizens.
"I felt happy. I felt important," she said of her ability to communicate in English.
Though there are other programs that offer English language classes and computer training to immigrants in Lowell, St. Julie students say their classes are more suitable for students who need to start with their basic ABCs.
Nara Vibol, who has taken two years of classes at the center, added that St. Julie is located in Lowell's Lower Highlands neighborhood, where most of the Cambodian community lives. Many of the students don't have cars and are able to walk to the center. But Vibol, 24, said the community isn't just losing an effective program or a convenient location.
"It's more than a school," she said. "It's a family."
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