All posts tagged: Kayla Somvilay

Ambassador to Laos, The Honorable Rena Bitter visits the PacNW and Discusses Building Bridges

Former President, Barack Obama’s presidency was full of historical firsts. Everyone knows about the larger scale accomplishments, but only a small country like Laos, and its people around the world, would even care enough to know about the smaller stuff. I’m talking, of course, about the historical visits to Laos from Secretary Hillary Clinton to said President himself, a couple of years ago. While the homeland can only view it positively – the Lao diaspora ran the gamut of emotions. Not unexpected, considering it’s been a little over 40 years since the diaspora began. While some of us have made it back home for a visit, the disappearance of Sombath Somphone raises the dormant alarms we never quite forgot. It’s as if we were lulled into a semi-safe space by a lethargic dance-off only to have the Bogeyman reappear after we washed our makeup off. Regardless, with 40 years of time passing, the doors to some kind of positive relationship appear to at least be open. I couldn’t say if that is an insanely long …

Interview: Lao Community Service Center of Washington (LCSC) Executive Director Kayla Somvilay

What is the Lao Community Service Center of Washington? “Founded in 2016, The Lao Community Service Center of Washington (LCSC) is a non-profit community organization that assists refugees and immigrants with social, cultural, and educational services.  LCSC’s mission is to unite and strengthen the Lao Community in the Pacific Northwest.”  –LCSC In the 3 years since their debut, they’ve managed to put together language learning courses, community events like: pageants, seasonal festivals with focal changes, music concerts, and more! Best of all–they’re nowhere near done. All proceeds go towards providing the community much needed services, holding fundraising events–and, of course, the ultimate goal of having a Lao Community Center of our very own: to build a home for all the events and bouns we could ever want to throw. I can’t tell you how amazing that would be for our community. I managed to finagle an interview with Executive Director of LCSC, Kayla Somvilay to get her thoughts on her vision, fundraising, events, and her focus on the next generation. Sai Sisavatdy: Wow, what an …