For five decades, the Pacific Gateway Center has helped immigrants and refugees settle in Hawaiʻi. An upcoming event will bring community members together to honor the center's past and inspire its future.
The nonprofit was started by volunteers from three Hawaiʻi churches who pooled their resources to help refugees fleeing the Vietnam War. It's grown significantly since then, now offering microloans, a culinary business incubator, and even leases for farmland.
Terrina Wong, the deputy director of social and immigration services, said her family’s immigration story propelled her to help others.
Her father came to the United States from China, built a career in architecture, and worked on several famous buildings — including the Transamerica Pyramid building in San Francisco, a symbol of strength and aspiration.
"As a child of an immigrant who's succeeded in the United States, I am so grateful for this. It is really such a passion for me to be able to work with immigrants and to see their journeys," she said.
Hao Nguyen, the deputy director of development, hails from Vietnam. He came to Hawaiʻi around 2002 for a postbaccalaureate program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
"When I found out about Pacific Gateway Center and the work and the mission and a lot of different programs, I fall in love. So I first volunteered to help with the grant writing, but later on, I had the opportunity to be hired as an employee. And I lived the life of an immigrant myself," he said. "It's not easy, even for me, who can speak English, then can you imagine how hard it would be for people who cannot communicate in English?"
Wong said that when she started working at the center 14 years ago, most people seeking assistance were from Asia and the Pacific. Since then, the center has helped asylum seekers from all over the world, from Africa to Latin America.
More recently, the center has been helping a previously unexpected population — refugees from Ukraine.
"I think given the fact that geographically, we are so distant, and as well as culturally, we are so different, that we weren't expecting a lot of Ukrainians to come. But they did, and so Pacific Gateway Center has been really instrumental in providing refugee resettlement services for them," Wong said.
To celebrate 50 years of helping those in need, the center's Golden Gala at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi is on Oct. 5. To learn more, click here.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 5, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
