Buu-Van Rasih addressed the City Council on 2005 SD Police Public Safety Budget Gearing

On Monday you are making a decision on whether or not to cut 28 Community Service Officers from the San Diego Police Department. We ask you not to cut those positions for the present and to re-evaluate their role in sustaining public safety. We are very concerned about the consequences for the Multi-Cultural Community Relations Office in East San Diego, California.
The office fills the gap between the police department and the various communities served. In effect, East San Diego is the first point of entry for many refugees and immigrants( including among others, Cambodian, Ethiopian, Hmong, Lao, Somalis, Ugandan, and Vietnamese). The storefront Community Service Officers connect, through their language and cultural skills, these newcomers to the police department and other agencies including the District Attorney. Given the nature of East San Diego as a first point of entry to the wider community, it makes sense to leave in place a storefront that has proven a cost effective way of keeping these new residents as well as longer term resident safe and out of harm's way. Just last month the storefront handled 620 phone service calls and 640 office visits. In addition, they conducted 36 meetings with 500 community members. Beyond residents of East San Diego, they service the wider San Diego community including residents from Mira mesa, Linda Vista, Clairemont and Southeast San Diego. Thus their language and cultural skills serve the whole city. These observations only cover a portion of their importance for the police department and city.
In conclusion, we believe Community Services Officers are vital to the public safety and that the Multi-Cultural Community relations Office in East San Diego fill the gap between the police department and our various newcomer communities.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF MOTHER

IN LOVING MEMORY OF MOTHER

KHAMVAY VONGSOUTHI.

We have come here today to honor the life

of Mrs. Khamvay Vongsouthi.

Today, we lost a devoted mother,

a caring grand-mother,

a joyful aunt,

a generous cousin

and a cheerful friend.

Khamvay Vongsouthi, age 83, passed away peacefully surrounded by her children and grand-children on September 15, 2008 from Complications of a stroke and slipped away as she did everything in life, with grace and dignity.

She was a devoted mother and a loving “Mom”

and she will be deeply missed by us, all who are here today to celebrate her life.

She came to San Diego with her 9 children

in 1980 in search of a new life and prosperity for her children. She survived by 9 wonderful children,

and her 24 grand-sons and grand-daughters. They all shaved their heads(sons and grandsons) and are going to be nuns(daughters and grand-daughters) for one day to pay respect and honor for their beloved one’s and their devotion to God and Buddha. They have become nuns and monks for her devotion and to commemorate her departure and this is significant in life as Laotian sons and daughters, as well as grand-sons and grand-daughters. She wanted her children and her grandchildren to love each other, and to be caring and to support one another. She taught them the best way of living, by doing good deeds to others and to look to the future by being equipped with education and knowledge. Her children and grand-children mean the world to her.

She feels love and concern for her children and grand-children. It is a good thing to learn caution by the misfortunes of others.

I’d like to leave her with a poem straight from my heart and it says,

“In Memory of My Devoted Mother.

In life you bring happiness and joy

to those you love.

In death you leave us with

lasting memories of joy you brought

into our lives.

Many things brought joy to you,

more greater than being with us

and our children.

Your love radiated through your eyes

and your joy through your laughs-

wonderful traits leaving a permanent imprint in all our hearts.

You were loved by all of us,

and surely you will be missed by

all of us here today,

your sons, daughters,

grandsons, grand-daughters

and your family and friends.

Peace be with us,

as it is with you.

All our love.

Goodbye Mother,

Rest In Peace.”

I, Buu-Van Rasih, on behalf of Vongsouthi’s Family, would like to thank all of you here today for your prayers, support, and kindness during this difficult time. We also would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all of you here today.

Thank you for your kindness and for your compassion and your generosity…

and let peace be with all of you.

and Thank you.

Welcome to the Multi-Cultural Community Relations Office

We are pleased to welcome you Police Chief Meijboom from Rotterdam to the finest City of San Diego and we are happy that you have selected our Multi-cultural community relations office as your new sister Police Community Relations Office storefront. We believe that you will find that this storefront is an exciting community relations office that prides itself on reducing crime, providing public safety, and improving the quality of life in our city.

My name is Buu-Van Rasih,

Multi-cultural community relations office co-founder and I am from Laos, in a South-East Asian country called Indochina (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam). I have been in San Diego for over 32 years. I am a language and culture expert and I am an approved court interpreter for the San Diego Superior Court and I speak 5 languages.

As a former city commissioner for the San Diego Human Relations Commission, former Chairman of City of San Diego Indochinese Council, former Chairman and CEO of International Mutual Assistance Association, former Associate Director of Catholic Charities, founding member of Indochinese Chamber of Commerce and Co-founder of the Multi-cultural Community Relations Office storefront,

I fought for full city money to implement real community policing in Mid-City and East San Diego to reduce crime and provide public safety against crime, youth and domestic violence and drug and improve quality of life in our city.

The Multi-Cultural and Multi-Lingual Community Relations Office Storefront represents our pride, our hope and our dream by “Working together for a better and safer community”. To provide community policing services in partnership with the San Diego Police Department, the City of San Diego and the International community of 44 different languages comprised of 40,000 Vietnamese, 20,000 East Africans (12,000 of those are Somalis-2^nd largest Somalis in the country after Minnesota) 18,000 Laotians and Hmongs, and 7,000 Cambodians, and other Middle East and Eastern European refugees arrived in the United States to free a brutal civil war and for their community, it boiled down to a cultural issue, that of people fleeing their country because of persecution, much of it involve in police state. The police were simply not trusted and moving to a new land was not going to change that perception-at least not right away.

Through our work with the San Diego City Council (and with the police department to recruit Indochinese, Somalis and International officers) we have formed a partnership with the International community to support law enforcement (slowly but surely, that cultural barrier came down). We are working together to solve problems, improve public safety, and enhance quality of life in their community.

The MCCRO Advisory Board members and I look forward to the continuing development and advancement of the Multi-Cultural Community Relations Office Storefront. Together We Can Make Difference but development and advancement can happen only with effective leaders who are honest, upright and incorruptible, ethical, accountable, sincere and selfless.

As Co-founder of the MCCRO storefront, I wish to express my thanks and appreciation to the staff and volunteer Advisory Board Members for their work and dedication in maintaining our community as a safe environment to live, work, and play.