| Phouratsamy Naughton (Phou) |
| Supharak Pathammavong (Su) |
| Bounsou Sananikone |
| Toumkham Somphanh |
| Kathy Prasith |
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| Community Events |
Phouratsamy Naughton (Phou)
buddhist nun/radio broadcaster
Phouratsamy Naughton, called Phou, originally came to the United States as a student. She later returned to her native country, where she worked for the United States Information Agency. She returned to the United States in order to work at the Voice of America as a radio broadcaster for the Lao section. Phou plays a major role in Lao refugee resettlement community in the Washington metropolitan area. She was instrumental in establishing the Lao Buddhist temple, Wat Lao Buddhavong, in Manassas, Virginia. It was through her efforts that the monks were able to leave the Thai refugee camp and resettle here. She, herself, became a Buddhist nun. At the temple, she works with the youth to teach them about their Lao cultural heritage.
Quotes from Phouratsamy Naughton:
The American community has a lot of communities making America. And even though we’re new, maybe [only] fifteen years since the refugees started coming in, we are a part of the community. America, as a whole, each community should know the other community, [know] who else is around you, in order to work together.
I remind the children that we should be a healthy community. We need to be good citizens. In order to build our community, we have to come together and learn a lot of things, and we have to be good....We do build our community one way or another. Luckily, we have the monks to lead us and we all follow them....The monks are everything to the people. If the family is unhappy, they will call the monks. The monks have to give them advice.
I taught my children how to do the Lao dances. I learned it in school in Laos and I know a few dances that I can teach them and I always have music with me. So I taught them, the two of them, brother and sister, at home here in the U.S. And they performed at the school bazaars and at church festivals—the Lao dances. And then we became more involved when the refugees came and many churches asked the dancers, my children, to perform to help raise funds to sponsor more refugees. So we got more involved and then I said to my kids that the two of them were not enough. We have to have more dancers to provide according to the need of the community.
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| Phouratsamy Naughton (Phou) | Phouratsamy Naughton (Phou) in front of US Capitol |
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| Phouratsamy Naughton (Phou) broadcasting at the Voice of America, United States Unformation Agency |
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| Phouratsamy Naughton (Phou) with her mother at home |
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| Phouratsamy Naughton (Phou) |
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| Phouratsamy Naughton (Phou) leading the congregation in prayer at Lao New Year celebration |