For immediate release July 26, 2008 Tel. (714) 893-6145 The Book Project The Forgotten Ones Concludes with $10,488.30 Donated to Organizations Helping the Vietnamese refugees WESTMINSTER – Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) and photographer Brian Doan have concluded the book project The Forgotten Ones. The project has raised $12,238.30 since the book was published in February of 2005. From the total funding of $12, 238.30,the amount of $7988.30 was donated to the Vietnamese Community in the Philippines) in August 2005 to help the refugees with transportation from Palawan to Manila in order to complete the interview process before resettling in a third country. Funding of $2500 was donated to VOICE (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for the Conscience Empowerment) to help the refugees resettle in the new country. Funding of $1500 was donated to Brian Doan to continue his photography project “Vietnamese Diaspora.” The remaining $250 was given to VAALA’s book project “Nghệ Thuật Tạo Hình Việt Nam Hiện Đại”” (The Contemporary Visual Art of Viet Nam) by Huynh Huu Uy, which will be published at the end of this calendar year. The Forgotten Ones was published to document a historical phenomenon of the Vietnamese refugee period and to raise public awareness on the limbo situation of the last refugees. The 110-page book featuring 30 black and white photographs reflects the life of the refugees in the Palawan Camp. The book also contains many facts about the boat people experience compiled by Mr. Richard H. Sindt. At the time of the book’s release, about 2000 people were waiting hopelessly in the Philippines to resettle in a third country. Through his lens, Brian Doan documented the mental as well as the physical exhaustion of the refugees. “I am very pleased to see that the book The Forgotten Ones has a very happy ending; a majority of ‘the forgotten ones’ has now resettled in a third country after years of being stateless,” Doan says. “I hope they are getting a lot of help and will have a better life to compensate for what they have been through,” concluding, “Once again, I’d like to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the sponsors of the book project.” Lawyer/activist Hoi Trinh later sent the book to many officials in Canada and the U.S. when he was trying to lobby for the refugees to resettle in a third country. “[This book] has helped in showing the bureaucrats in Canberra, Ottawa, and Washington D.C. what statelessness means and what they can do to help, resulting in some 2000 Vietnamese refugee lives being rescued and now safely resettled in the West,” Hoi Trinh explains. He adds, “But to this day, it should still serve as a reminder that there are over one hundred Vietnamese families left in limbo and broken after nearly 20 years of statelessness in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines.” In order to publish The Forgotten Ones, VAALA and Brian Doan have received donations from these following sponsors: Mr & Mrs. Phát Bùi, Mimi Studio, Ms. Tracy Anh Trâm Phạm, Dr. Nguyễn Văn Hưng & Ms. Quỳnh Hương, Người Việt Daily News, Ms. Roxanne Chow, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc, Ms. Hạnh Nguyễn, Mr. Đinh Quang Tuyền, kicon.com, and Lê Đình Điểu Foundation. “We would also like to specially thank the two journalists Dương Phục and Vũ Thanh Thủy and Mr. Nam Lộc for their great support in making our book signing a success in Houston,” insisted Ysa Le, VAALA’s Executive Director. Brian Doan is an artist and photographer based in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from the University of Colorado in Denver and his MFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. He is an assistant professor of photography at Long Beach City College. Doan's work has been exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Photography in Riverside, California, the International Center of Photography in New York, the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City, Mexico, the Victoria & Albert Museums in London, the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum, and the Milan Triennale. He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including those from the California Council for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Fellowship in the Humanities. Founded in 1991 by a group of Vietnamese American journalists, artists and friends, Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) is a community-based, non-profit organization that promotes and enriches arts and culture by, for, and about the Vietnamese communities. VAALA has organized numerous cultural events such as art exhibitions, book fairs, book signings, recitals, plays, lectures, the biennial Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF), the biennial Cinema Symposium, the annual Children's Moon Festival Art Contest and year-round art and music classes. VAALA recently developed the smART Program, which offers free art workshops for non-profit youth organizations in the Orange County and Los Angeles areas.
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