By Carolyn Bogott

American Association of University Women

With a smile full of sunshine, K’Pru Gold states, “Helping people is my passion!”

K’Pru is one of Austin’s newer residents and has already used her passion to assist many of Austin’s four to five hundred new Karen and Kareni community members.

Jake Vela, former executive director of the Welcome Center says,  “K’Pru’s contributions to the Karen community in Austin have been monumental. She assisted many of our Karen families to resettle into our community. Many of them became homeowners, working at Quality Pork and Hormel, and some started businesses here in Austin. I’m so proud of the work she was able to accomplish while she was at the Welcome Center.”

K’Pru’s job at the Welcome Center was serving as the Karen liaison and case manager. She would meet one-to-one with youth, parents and families to assess their needs and match them to various community resources. Offering onsite parent/family support, as well as interpretation services filled much of her time. In addition to connecting our new refugee community members to various resources, she was also responsible for finding adequate housing, transportation, and for ensuring that children were being enrolled into our public schools.

K’Pru says that as a girl growing up in a village in Myanmar (formerly Burma) she learned that we need to care for one another. Her father (who died when she was a child) told her that education was the key to a better life.  She was one of the few in her village to finish high school, after which she worked for four  years as a medic, assisting a doctor in the border areas and learning basic nursing skills.  Later she was able to complete a four year nursing program in Bangkok.  An opportunity to come to Alaska opened up to her in 2005.  There she worked doing interpretation by phone. Wanting to be near more Karen people brought her to Minnesota. Initially she lived with her sister and brother-in-law in St. Paul, and he was commuting to work in Albert Lea. K’Pru suggested that they should move to Albert Lea to eliminate the long commute.  That brought her to southern Minnesota, where she found out about the growing Karen community in Austin and she decided to move here. She found employment at the Welcome Center, financed through a grant from the Blandin Foundation and later through a grant from the Department of Human Services. She now owns a home here and works as an on-call interpreter.

Her advice to all is to take advantage of educational opportunities and to take care of yourself and your friends. That is her key to a good life!

For more information about the Austin Branch of AAUW, contact Sue Grove  sue.grove@riverland.edu  or Carolyn Bogott  csbogott@charter.net.