Mr.
Khamchong Luangpraseut was born on 4/22/41, in the village of Lat-Bouak in
Xiengkhouang province, just a few miles from the world famous Plain of Jars.
Where he grew up literacy was luxury and electricity and paved roads were
non-existent. He was the only child of his parents who were killed in 1961
during the conflicts between the
neutralist,
communist and conservative factions. Mr. Khamchong was sent to study abroad on
an academic scholarship" He lived in Poland for 11 years, earned a master's
degree in economics with honors from Warsaw University in 1971.
Mr. Khamchong believed education plays a key role in the progress of refugees
and immigrant in American society" He also believed that quality it
mainstreaming in
America was possible and necessary. While maintaining dynamic
relationships with Laotian communities in many state Mr. Khamchong had worked
closely and successfully with other Indochinese community leaders. In fact, he
was the first non-Vietnamese elected president of the National Association for
Vietnamese American Education(NAVAE). During Khamchong's presidency, from
1988 to 1990, in order to reflect more accurately the make up of the
organization as well as its broader mission NAVAE was changed to NAFEA:
the National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian
and Vietnamese Americans.
Mr. Khamchong's leadership was widely esteemed, domestically and
internationally. In the early seventies, he was a special guest of the
governments of the United States and Japan. On 01/01/90 the Orange County
Register featured Khamchong as one of the "Ten People To Watch In The 90".
A prestigious Thai business bi-weekly magazine in Bangkok, "The Manager",
published a full page profile entitled "Khamchong Who?" in its
Southeast Asian section in July, 1990.
Mr. Khamchong was a well known lecturer on Indochinese cultures and languages.
He spoke Lao, Polish, French, English, Vietnamese, Thai, Yunnanese, Hmong and
some Spanish.
Mrs Kongdeuane Nettavong, director of the National Library of Laos.
EDUCATION:
Bachelor’s degree
from Laval University, Quebec, Canada.
Master’s degree from Paris,
France.
She has pursued a literacy program for the Laotians by
setting up libraries, publishing books in Lao and encouraging people to
read. She created the Story Puppet Caravan for Lao children. The Caravan
travels to rural areas.
This Nobel Peace Prize nominee
plays guitar, flute and Khaen. It is very hard to find a female Khaen
player. She is actively involved in promoting the value of Khaen. The number
of Khaen player in Laos has been increased partly because of Mrs. Nettavong.
Mr. Pheng Chanthavilay of Woodbridge, Virginia, proud father of two medical
doctors, talks to VOA about the struggle and hardship he had to endure in taking
care of his family in the U.S. on his janitor’s income alone because
his handicapped wife could not work. Even so, he managed to raise his five
children so successfully that two of them become doctors.
All his offsprings graduated from college. One of his four daughters, Dr.
Damdy Chanthavilay, received her dentist diploma in 1996. Youykham, his only
son, recently became an ophthalmologist.
Host chef of Uncorked started as dishwasher
When chef Khamtan Tanh-chaleun moved to the Islands in 1971
from his home in Vientiane, Laos, at the age of 15, his English consisted of
"OK" and a ready smile.
His first job, as a dishwasher at Michel's at the Colony Surf, didn't help much: Everyone on the lower rungs of the kitchen ladder was also Laotian.
 |
Tanhchaleun, who already spoke Lao, French, Thai, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Cambodian, had little chance to practice the English he was
struggling to learn at McKinley High School.
"When they talk to me in the kitchen, I keep smiling
but I have no understanding of what they are saying," said the man who now
runs a kitchen of his own as executive chef for Ko'olau Catering Partners and
host chef for this year's Hawai'i Uncorked Hawai'i Public Radio benefit, a
wine-and-food tasting and silent tasting and silent auction from 11 a.m. to 5
p.m. May 23 at Ko'olau Golf Course.
...Tanhchaleun continued to work for Michel's while he attended Kapi'olani Community College's culinary program, graduating in 1976. Michel's was then THE Honolulu restaurant for fine French dining, and he rose from dishwasher to sous chef and part-time wine steward ("so I see the outside of the house, too")...
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/May/12/il/il20a.html
Vongduane,
a self taught artist