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Show ill Page A8 Thursday, December 7, I 'I . - ; ? . Park City High School student Angela Ho fled Vietnam four years ago. Unbeknownst to her, Angela's parents had arranged safe passage to a refugee camp in the Phillipines. Most of her family still live in Saigon. Announcing new winter hours for the Barking Frog and the Riverhorse Cafe-Open Cafe-Open seven nights a week at 5:30 p.m. Try our new winter menus Lunches closed for the winter-visit winter-visit our deck & patio in the spring. i u i m s i 'A 540 Main Old Masonic Hall 649-3536 11 ' I . X.D T PLACE PARK CITY ENTERTAINMENT CENTER INC MAIN STREET. PAOIX CITY. 1989 Park Record r I: j 1 ! st-M-r :--J Child refugees seek by ROBIN PORTER Record staff writer Each day at 4 a.m. Angela Ho's father took her and her sister to the beach so they could practice swimming swim-ming and running. Four years ago she had no idea the family trip to Saigon would entail swimming in darkness to a boat that would take her to a refugee camp for Vietnamese Viet-namese citizens in the Phillipines. Nearly two years ago Hui Tran left Vietnam on a boat that took her to Thailand. She said, had her parents told her of their plan to send her away, she would not have cooperated so readily. Now, both girls attend school in Park City. And the plight of these young "boat people" is not new to their foster family, Allen and Charlett Vickers of Pinebrook. Angela and Hui are the fifth and sixth young adults that the Vickers Refugees journey into night Angela and Hui (see related story, this page) spent a combined total of two years in the two centers remaining remain-ing that relocate refugees in Western European nations. These centers are just a part of a large network net-work of private and public support groups handling the burgeoning need of religiously or politically persecuted refugees. A local support group Catholic Community Services in Salt Lake City Ci-ty brought Angela and Hui to the Vickers family. Most of the refugee children are are 14-year-old boys who escaped Vietnam, leaving their families behind. Director of Refugee Foster Care Tom Ivory says the major goal of the program is to reunify the child with his natural parents. But chances are BARKING P o o GRILL 368 Main Street 649-6222 fo) THEY'RE BACK THIS THURS & FRI. TEANSPIUfjT JADE. YOU HEARD'EM ON KJQ NOW SEE THEM LIVEI GEFF EN RECORDING ARTISTS SUNDAY NIGHT MANIA! ! ! t WATCH THE GAME ON GARGANTUA THE 9' BYl 2' VIDEO SCREEN f VERY TUES.AND WED' mi ?!? AMD MDE3RW WIN TCKETS TO UPCOMING SHOWS. COMING DECEMBER 3 1ST. CALL NOW rOR RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION. THI ULTIMATE NEW YEAR'S EVE POR il GOOB TIMG have taken in through the Catholic Community Services Refugee Program. Pro-gram. "When we saw the movie 'The Killing Fields' we decided we needed need-ed to help somebody out," Cliatrlett Vickers said. She says there are still large numbers of Vietnamese living in refugee camps but there are not enough homes to go around. "It takes an unbelievably long time to process the paperwork," Allen Vickers said. He sayH the refugee programs are winding down and many may have to return ifrom the camps to Vietnam where they will be "as good as dead," he added. One of their former Vietnamese wards, Van, spent three years iin a concentration camp. Allen Vickers says when Van watched the "Killling Fields", he said merely, "The s,a me, the same." He described the violence, malnutrition and disease that was rampant in the camp. not very good, he says for direct transfer of families who remain in Vietnam. Ivory says taking in an adolescent refugee is not too different from handling an American foster child. But, he said many of the parents v vho volunteer are younger and have not had much experience with teenagers. For this reason he say s , it takes about three or four families to bring one adolescent refugee boy to adulthood. Ivory says the service needs to maintain a large pool of families to handle the needs of the; 70 children in the program. Guidelines are identical to those of the state's foster child program. Social workers do a complete background check of families w ho volunteer. It takes a few months to become licensed as a foster home. Since 1975, the state of Utah lias assisted more than ten thousand Vietnamese, Cambodian and La otian o-tian refugee families and children with housing and services. Nearly 300 thousand refugees live along the borders of Cambodia, Thailand and Lao according to tine state office of social services. Continued on A-10 Homeowners Insurance Who'll give you Oreal value fervour homeowners f O insurance dollar? OTom Ligare, Agent 1662 Bonanza O 649-3332 Stale Farm Fire and Casually Company Home Ollice Bloomington, Illinois A peace in Park City Van successfully escaped the camp on his third attempt. He stepped step-ped off the plane in the United States at the age of 21. When the Vickers asked where his luggage was he looked around indicating he had none. He now lives independently in Salt Lake City. Charlett and Allen Vickers now focus their attention on their two foster children and their own five-year-old daughter Ashly. Charlett says the girls have adjusted ad-justed easily to their new, colder and dryer climate. But things like electricity, elec-tricity, toilets and stoves are luxuries lux-uries that add to the culture shock. Angela and Hui both say they are sad that their families cannot be with them. They write and receive letters from their parents and siblings. sibl-ings. Hui worries about her father who is ill with lung problems. Angela says if she had been the parent in Vietnam, she would probably pro-bably have made the same choice l I. I. ,JM,NII:UI.UJ:JUN.M,..JIJ,,J.I .;?:t'jU.-P,AW WlWy ..M . '. . , . JO' TJ , . . . ,i N o "' : ' -vl j 1. II u -1 os - - " 11 ; .vr . . : . J M-4 lf1! l if mil m - JT , r I .,Lv - Fifteen-yearI, Tfan f tayed a refuge? famp rwil 1 I t i I ir ri I . x 1 i I iiiatiauu i or t year anu a naii aiier ner parents neipea ner escape Vietnam. She continues to exchange letters with her family who now live in Cambodia. On SCLE OF ONE -Y. O How much will you weigh Atter the r , . ' ' 3 week special only. registration or Offer good November Diet Center Morning weigh-ins M-F 7:30-1 1:30 am Afternoons M-F 12-5 by appt. only Saturday weigh-ins 8:30-10:30 am 750 Kearns Blvd.-across from the Yarrow for her children. Hui, who arrived in 1 Park City in September takes Engli sh as a second se-cond language (ESL) it Treasure Mountain Middle Scho ol. Angela, who has lived with the Vickers for one-and-a-half years, coi mpleted her ESL course while attendi Ing Park City Ci-ty High School. ; The Vickers are now ti tying to bring br-ing Angela's younger si ster to the United States from a reft igee camp. Allen says the state does provide financial help with food land some clothing. H Allen Vickers says i lie foster parent's job is to prepare each child to live independently. He says his company, Hoit USA that nakes archery ar-chery equipment, has hdred two refugees from the program already. Though both girls were r aised in a far different culture than the Vickers', their foster mott lers says raising adolescents still rtsmains a "challenge." TO A THOUSAND... Holidays? Does not include restart fee. 27-December 20th 649-6776 |