Hai Minh Nguyen is the Supervisor of English Language Training with our Refugee & Immigrant Community Services (RICS) program. She works with the Vocational English Language Training (VELT) Program to offer English language classes, one-on-one and group tutoring, job readiness, digital literacy, and transitions counseling to English language learners, including refugees and immigrants. In honor of International Women’s Day, hear from Hai Minh Nguyen about how we all rely on the work of women, and how the RICS VELT team is empowering women through their programs.
Why do you champion/support women?
I champion women because they make the world go round! They are brave, innovative, and wise. The work that women do is fundamental to all aspects of community life.
Why do you think investing in women is important?
I think it is necessary to invest in women because women return multiple folds the energy invested in them. When women see something that needs attention, they do it. Women give at home, at work, and everywhere in between. They make significant contributions that go unnoticed and even more often are unpaid. When women are provided what they need to thrive, so will their families, communities, and the world.
Why does empowering women create deeper impact?
Women represent more than their individual selves–a wide network of relations and mutual support. Any opportunity I have, I want to bring attention to and show appreciation for the endless hours of unpaid affective labor contributed by women. I want to magnify the most mundane daily actions because without those actions as the foundation, there would be no humanity, no society.
Many of the most inspiring people in history are women who fought tooth and nail for representation, justice, and equity. I want to thank the women in our lives for loving us and for blazing the way so we can dream big and act with agency. Every day, they inspire us to choose to speak from our most authentic voices.
Shout-out to the amazing women working at Refugee and Immigrant Community Services!
