Ly Sieng Ngo--Model Community Leader

Since winning the award, Ms. Ngo has continued her efforts on behalf of the Asian refugee community in Seattle. Due to welfare reform, most of her quilting women sought full-time jobs, and last year, the group disbanded, closing up their little shop. Ms. Ngo would now like to find funding to start a plant nursery staffed by some of these women, which would build on the successful landscaping business she created for the men. "I want to use my energy to help these people recover from their depression, and show them that they can be productive, can live a life. Right now, we are just surviving in this country." She feels financial independence is crucial to these refugees' recovery. "If you are financially in such bad shape," she says, "the mental health recovery part is not possible. You have to have food on the table for the family, and live in a decent neighborhood, where you don't have to witness drugs and killing and car wrecking every day." Ms. Ngo is also concerned about the fate of the children of Cambodian refugees growing up in the United States. "Nine out of ten Cambodian families have children who are in gangs or in jail," she says sadly.

Ms. Ngo also plans to finish writing her memoirs. "I want to write the story of my war experience and share it with the younger generation of my family members, because they didn't go through the war. Because in the Western world here, people don't appreciate what they have. They just want more, and I would like my nieces and nephews to know it's not necessary, because if you've had the kind of experiences I've had, you'd see that the things around here are just extra."

To Ly-Sieng Ngo, leadership is all about caring. "If I don't do what seems right, I can't sleep well at night," she admits. She has found her happiness serving the same population that were her servants as a child back in Cambodia. "You know," she says, "people don't need a special skill, or to go to a special school, to learn how to lead. You can do a lot of things by just being who you are. When you care about other people, what goes around comes around. When you help other people recover, other people help you recover, too — and then we can be productive members of society, and contribute to make society better for the next generation."