User:SatyakSom/Hai Pho

Overview
Dr. Hải Bá Phó is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Pho has dedicated much of his studies and life to Southeast Asian politics, Vietnamese history and civilization, international relations, US foreign policy and refugee policy. Pho received his doctorate degree at Boston University.

Dr. Pho is married to his wife of 55 years, Dr. Lan Tuyết Phó. After teaching Political Science for 34 years at UMass Lowell, both Dr. Pho retired with his wife in 2002 and moved to Southern California for 20 years. They are currently living in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

During Pho's teaching career, he traveled to Communist China and Russia in 1984, and Eastern European countries in 1989 shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He also was a visiting scholar at the University of Saigon from 1973-1975.

Indochinese Refugee Foundation
The Indochinese Refugee Foundation (IRF) was established in 1977. Dr. Pho played a pivotal role as a founding member of the non-profit mutual assistance association. He obtained and supervised grants from the US States Department to provide resettlement services to refugees from Southeast Asia, including Cambodians, Lao-Hmong, and Vietnamese.

Indochinese Refugee Foundation provided social services to Southeast Asian refugees. ​In a 1984 letter, IRF executive director Carol Keirstead writes, “The Indochinese Refugees Foundation of Lowell has been providing ESL, employment and support services to Lowell’s refugee population for the past four years. As you may know, Lowell has been a site for resettlement and migration because of our services and the availability of employment in this area.”

The resettlement of refugees was broken up into two phases: housing and language skills, and employment and training. The IRF provided English as a second language training to refugees as preparation for the employment at Lowell local agencies. The goal of the IRF was to ensure refugees became self-sufficient as they resettled in the US.

The Indochinese Self-Help Project, under Dr. Pho's guidance, became one of the most successful resettlement projects. However, its success led to unexpected challenges, such as successive waves of secondary migrations. By 1985, with the establishment of specific ethnic mutual assistance associations, the project successfully transferred all grant fundings and services, closing its operations.