Feature News
Owners of Phnom Penh Restaurant honor their past by serving Cambodian refugees
When Hong Do, 56, and his family arrived in Oakland from Cambodia in 1981, they weren’t sure how they were going to make a living. “None of us had any skills at all,” said Do.
Four decades later, Hong and his family own and operate a successful restaurant, Phnom Penh Restaurant, with locations in Oakland and Alameda. The Oakland restaurant, on 3912 MacArthur Blvd. in the Laurel neighborhood, is run by Hong and his wife Zhen Do; the Alameda location on 1514 Webster St. is operated by his younger siblings, Ty and Linda Do. The original location, opened by their parents in Oakland’s Chinatown in 1983, closed in 2017.
Oct. 3, 2019
ICE arrests two Cambodians in SF as advocates protest deportations
About 50 community advocates and Cambodians rallied at ICE headquarters in San Francisco Thursday, joining groups across the nation to protest the ongoing arrests of refugees who fled the country decades ago.
By noon, organizers had gotten word that two Cambodian men ordered to report to U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement on Sansome Street that morning — Saman Pho of Oakland and Sakun Phok of San Jose — had been detained.
April 2, 2019
Cambodian communities face deportations / Reflections on a war-torn childhood / Hall of Justice
NPR: Coming up, we meet a Cambodian man grappling with his deportation. Then, a San Quentin inmate reflects on police-community relations in Cambodia. And, we go inside a government building where routine maintenance has gotten mired in controversy.
December 7, 2018
Dear Friends,
We at CERI wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season!
Walking into the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) is like joining a family gathering. Folks are greeted with tea and food when they arrive for individual therapy, psychiatric clinic, support groups, and case management. Our doors are open to those who are looking for community and companionship. Children and young adults who are seeking a warm, quiet, and safe space can meet with a mentor to finish their homework, and apply for schools and jobs.
What we have accomplished at CERI is beyond a mental health clinic. In the past 12 years, we have steadily built a sanctuary for our community; a home filled with life and light.
USF professor works with Cambodian immigrants to teach them English, help them heal from war
Thursday, October 23, 2014 |
A University of San Francisco professor is working with Cambodian immigrant men to help them learn English and adapt to their new homeland. Brad Washington, an assistant professor at USF, volunteers with the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants in Oakland as an English language literacy facilitator….
Devata Giving Circle Acknowledges the Director of CERI
March 1, 2012
Mona Afary, CERI’s Director was acknowledged for her “leadership and courage in advancing the human rights of the Cambodian American women and girls” at the Devata Giving Circle International Women’s Day event…
In Oakland, a center works to protect Cambodian girls from sexual exploitation
December 14, 2011
On a Friday night in December, ten girls between the ages of 11 and 20 gathered in a warmly lit, living room-esque space at Oakland’s Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) on International Boulevard. They sprawled throughout the room on couches, chairs, and pillows, silently watching Very Young Girls, a 2007 documentary ….
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Cambodian Refugees Investigated for SSI Fraud
December 7, 2006
From 1975 to 1979, two million Cambodians were murdered by the Khmer Rouge in the killing fields. Thirty years later, a major medical study in the U.S. finds that two thirds of the 150,000 Cambodian refugees here still suffer from the disabling flashbacks, nightmares and depression of post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, in California's Bay Area, dozens of Cambodians face a new challenge. The Social Security Administration is investigating them, for fraud…