There are three more months until our grant partnership funded by Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust ends and today, we wrapped up our series of community clinics for the Covid-19 vaccines that we begin in April of 2021, last year. In this event, we distributed 70 bags of rice to the community, drawing down the very last funds in the pot for food distribution assistance that was started last year in the form of organic vegetable give-aways which we sourced directly from elderly community farmers.
Ree-Ree, Executive Director of Transplanting Traditions
Mr. Tim Lorth, Charlotte Buddhist Temple Board Member
Elly Goetz, Associate Director Transplanting Traditions Community Farm
Sun Bujri, Community Engagement & Power Building (CE&PB) Director
Tou Vang, Montagnard American Organization Intern
Chantdara Yin, President of CCC of NC
Ben, Elon University Volunteer
Ah Rath, Elon University Volunteer
Lang L Leng, CCC of NC Board
Kally Sann, CCC of NC Board
Savouen San, CCC of NC volunteer
Kesar San, CCC Volunteer
Don Lam (me), CCC of NC Board
Seyha Thach, (Center), CCC of NC Operations Director
A major component of our team’s grant proposal was to lay out a foundation or a plan to address food insecurity in our community and to create a sustainable management plan that would help us grow our garden into something that could generate revenue and help sponsor our community and youth programs.
We are talking to a fellow immigrant organization that has succeeded in building out a rather successful and sustainable community farm in Chapel Hill that is run by the refugee communities from Burma. The Transplanting Traditions group, led by its Executive Director, Ree-Ree, and Associate Director, Elly joined in the event today while coming for a tour to see where we are at in our community garden to farm evolution. I am hopeful we can learn a lot from them as we move into the next stage of our development.
On another positive note, Mr. Chau Hen, former land rights activist and political prisoner from Vietnam came out today while Ms. Sun Bujri, from the Southeast Coalition (SEAC), was also there so I introduce the two activists and mentioned that they both shared a common friend, Sara Colm, who has done extensive work in human rights exposure in Cambodia and Vietnam through her role in Human Rights Watch based in Phnom Penh and current independent researcher that still focuses on indigenous minorities in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Photos by: Seyha Thach, CCC of NC Chief Operations Director
Leave a Reply