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Sophal arrived in Oakland in 1981, a young mother of 19 years with her son just one month old who she birthed in a refugee camp in Thailand, without a doctor, without clean water, without food, on a dirt floor. Resettling in the United States brought a new set of challenges. There were times when she barely had enough money to pay rent and in her late 20s she started developing arthritis. This did not and could not stop her. Survival and resilience is in her depth. Sophal began her community work in the Bay Area in 1999, as an outreach worker, interpreter, and volunteer. She worked with CERI for the first time as an interpreter during the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and joined CERI staff in 2017, where we benefit from her many gifts, including her passion for food. Sophal is famous for her Cambodian green waffles, leaving batter in CERI’s fridge for team members, and in almost every women’s group she reminds us of all the amazing cooks we have in our CERI community and exactly which dish she loves to eat from them. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sophal has been an integral part of every effort at CERI, from voter registration to census outreach to support groups, and has been instrumental when it comes to food distribution. Sophal is strengthening and building relationships with Phnom Penh, Cross Bay Mutual Aid, Nyum Bai, Cambodian Street Food and Monster Pho, to name a few, in order to ensure clients have access to groceries and hot meals. While most staff were taking a break at the end of last year, independently Sophal chose to continue food distribution at CERI’s office, knowing that our clients appreciated hot meals. In fact, we planned to end our hot meal distribution in December 2020, but Sophal, listening to our community, advocated to continue the initiative and single handedly took on the logistics, welcoming leadership from our CERI elders who wanted to help with tasks to facilitate continuity in 2021. Even when she is exhausted, Sophal brings laughter to every conversation.
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