Trip aims to build on Lowell's ties with Cambodia

By Grant Welker, gwelker@lowellsun.com

UPDATED:   01/06/2015 

LOWELL -- A team of city officials and agency leaders is heading to Cambodia for a 10-day trip to build on Lowell's ties to the country, and learn more about life in Cambodia today and the humanitarian crisis that began 40 years ago this year that brought a wave of refugees to Lowell.

Lowell will also sign a "sister city" agreement with officials in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, that will commit the two cities to more regular visits by representatives, and cooperation in fields like economics, education and tourism to develop shared benefits.

The trip comes at a notable time for the city's Cambodian population. On Wednesday, Rady Mom will be sworn in at the Statehouse as the city's newest state representative. He is the first Cambodian-American legislator in the country, and he met with the Cambodian prime minister and other top national officials on a trip to his home country shortly after he was elected in November.

Lowell first became a popular landing spot for Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge regime, which came to power 40 years ago this year. That initial burst of refugees has continued with a stream of immigrants that has pushed the city's Cambodian-American population into the tens of thousands and became the largest ethnic population in Lowell.

The group that leaves for the trip Wednesday includes Mayor Rodney Elliott; City Councilor Rita Mercier; Kevin Coughlin, deputy director of planning and development; Sovanna Pouv, the executive director of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association; Bopha Malone, the group's president; Yun-Ju Choi, executive director of the Coalition for a Better Acre; and Bopha Peou of the Lowell Housing Authority.

The trip came together by invitation of the Cambodian prime minister's office and a United Nations humanitarian arm that is marking the 40th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge regime coming to power.

"Most of your Lowell Cambodian-American citizens had to pass through these camps," a UN official on behalf of the Thai-Cambodian Border Humanitarian Workers Reunion Committee told Elliott in an invitation in October.

The invitation was extended to members of the City Council, School Committee and the city's state legislative delegation, Elliott said.

Elliott said he will be the first Lowell mayor to travel to Cambodia for official duties.

"I'm pretty honored, and I think it will be a historic opportunity for the city to strengthen those ties and learn about the culture and the genocide and how it affects these people," Elliott said.

The business trip also has personal benefits, such as to Pouv, who was born in a Cambodian refugee camp in neighboring Thailand.

"I'm excited because it's my first time," Pouv said of visiting the country where his parents and ancestors lived. "I've heard so much about it. I know so much about our culture and our people here, but I'm assuming it's going to be a lot different there."

Pouv, who became executive director in 2014, said he hopes to gain a better understanding of life and customs and Cambodia and how it differs from life in the Cambodian community in Lowell. That can help when someone at the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association might say they're from, say, Phnom Penh or Pailin.

All of the participants are paying for the trip out of their own pocket, Elliott said. The group will fly from Boston's Logan International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, then to Bangkok. It is there, in Thailand, where they will meet with a United Nations group and travel to Cambodia.

For Choi, who was hired only last May to lead the Coalition for a Better Acre, the trip is a chance to learn about the culture of many of the Lowell residents the agency serves. Because she is still new to the position, she's not so familiar with the Cambodian culture, she said. 

Choi said she would be visiting refugee camps along the Thai border and meeting some government officials.

"But this is really more about us going there and learning about the culture and the people," she said.

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