HOUSTON, TX, March 14 — The greater Houston area’s 100,000 Vietnamese-American residents are receiving better access to legal aid from linguistically competent and culturally trained staff, thanks to a Boat People SOS (BPSOS) program funded in part with a $62,030 grant from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation (TAJF).

“We’re grateful to TAJF for funding our work to improve the Vietnamese-American community’s access to legal aid,” said BPSOS staff attorney An-Phong Vo. “Many Vietnamese people face huge barriers in this area, and this grant is helping us reach them.”
“TAJF funding has enabled us to provide legal aid to nearly 20 people in the last six months, benefiting over 40 people in all,” added Vo. “We’ve scored key successes just recently, including two domestic violence survivors who were approved to stay in the US legally, and one human trafficking survivor who was reunited with her son from South America.”

Many Vietnamese residents in the Houston area lack the financial resources to obtain the legal aid they need. According to the US Census Bureau’s 2004 American Community Survey, 14 percent of Vietnamese in the US are poor, exceeding the national average, white average, and Asian average. Vietnamese people also face linguistic and cultural barriers to accessing services; an estimated 55 percent speak English less than “very well.” Few Houston-area legal aid providers other than BPSOS offer linguistically competent and culturally trained staff.

“The Vietnamese-American community has some particularly vulnerable populations, meaning mentally-disabled torture survivors, human-trafficking victims, mail-order brides, the shrimping communities that were devastated by hurricanes, and women bound to remain in abusive relationships because of cultural norms or fear of deportation,” said Vo. “We try to provide them with the legal means to get their dignity back and plan for the future.”

Legal aid will be offered free through the Houston branch of BPSOS, a national Vietnamese-American community-based organization whose mission is to assist Vietnamese refugees and immigrants in their search for a life in dignity and liberty.

“We’re excited to work with BPSOS to realize our vision that all Texans have equal access to justice, regardless of their income, fluency in English or ethnic diversity,” said Lisa Melton, TAJF’s director of grants.

The Texas Access to Justice Foundation is the leading funder of legal aid in Texas. With TAJF funding, legal aid organizations help 100,000 low-income Texans each year with their civil legal needs.

BPSOS-Houston provides legal representation, advocacy, case management, education, and outreach services in the greater Houston area and the Texas Gulf Coast, including Beaumont/Port Arthur, Galveston, Dickenson, Rockport, and beyond.