Bunrath Math, 55, was only 11 years old when he fled Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge’s brutal rule. As an orphan in the United States, he initially found refuge in Berkshire, Massachusetts, before settling in Philadelphia in 1992.
Over the past 30 years, Math has dedicated his life to helping the Cambodian community and other minority groups in Philadelphia. After settling here as a teenager, Math obtained his bachelors in Public Administration and Social Service Professions from Temple University, and then his master’s in Clinical Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. From there, he used those degrees to give back to his adopted city.
Today, Math is a Community Relations Representative for the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, where he works with individuals and communities as a mediator and facilitator. In a volunteer capacity, he’s also vice president on the board of directors for the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, having joined the board in 2003.
Founded in 1979, the Cambodian Association was created to be a safe haven for Cambodian refugees, where they were able to receive support while they navigated their lives in a new country. They now offer an array of services, with a strong emphasis on education, representation, and community support. CAGP’s programs include PHLpreK, OST After School (Out-of-School Time), internships for high school students, case management for various social services, and community health and wellness initiatives. While the organization has changed over the years, their main mission has not: They serve to support and improve the lives of the Cambodian community, which contains unique traumas and histories that other social agencies are not trained to detect.
“But why do I do this?,” says Math. “I’m a broken glass. Your parents are broken glass. We can glue it together, but it’s never the same. You can still see the marks there. We walk around with a scar, but we manage it.”
While the Cambodian Association holds a strong emphasis on uplifting the Khmer community, they welcome everyone to their many programs and events that they host. Currently, CAGP has a partnership with the Vendors Association of FDR Park and FDR Park to establish the Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park, where Southeast Asian street food can be found. The Southeast Asian Market opened on Sunday, April 2, 2023 and will remain open throughout the summer, every Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM. The CAGP has two locations, one in North Philadelphia (Olney) and the other in South Philadelphia (Lower Moyamensing).
The following interview has been lightly edited for grammar and style.
How did the Cambodian Association come about? Why was it created?
Just like any organization, the mission changes. Refugees started to come here in ’78 or ’79, and up until 1990. Around ’85 and ’86 was the peak of the first wave. The US didn’t have people who understood [the Cambodian] culture to consult with these people who came from this part of Cambodia. “Where should I send them? Where should I find a sponsor for this family? They came from a farm.” [The government] thinks that all Cambodians are farmers, so they say, “Okay, I found a sponsor in Arkansas or Ohio with a big farm.” They send you to work on the farm. You’re almost like a fish out of water. That’s not the same kind of farm as Cambodia. Cambodia is a small plot, a family farm, not miles and miles as far as the eye can see, run by tractors and corporations. They don’t do that kind of farming. So they were left lonely and they didn’t know what to do. They didn’t speak English.
After a while, maybe a year, they found out that Cambodians lived in Philadelphia. And here’s what they did: they came here, first to get to know somebody from the refugee camp that lives in Philadelphia and second, to get a job. When they came, they had a problem adjusting to the culture, to the language, navigating transportation, navigating the health and healing systems. All of this overwhelmed them. They didn’t know who to call for help. So that’s why the elders came up with the idea of having a Cambodian association to provide just the basic needs.
What needs of the Cambodian community did the CAGP begin to serve?
Whatever they needed they could call and we could refer them by acting as their interpreter or social worker. The social work unit was just one of the missions and then we had the advocacy, support, and internal fight for your voice in the city. When Cambodian people got harassed, they reported them as just Asians, and sent them to an Asian agency or organization. Maybe they are refugees, but they are completely different people, coming from different countries.
The circumstances are different for Cambodians. They are going to have unique needs due to the war, due to the economic system, due to the killing fields, due to the trauma of the killing fields, losing family and seeing family getting killed. This kind of trauma has different needs. You cannot just send Cambodians to any Asian agency and expect them to get help, because those agencies come from different cultures and they wouldn’t understand the healing approaches that each Cambodian brings with them. For example, you go to a doctor, and you complain of chest pains, they give you Tylenol or Aspirin but you tell them it’s not physical pain. I got this pain because I have nightmares. I see flashbacks from the past, from the killing fields. I’ve witnessed all this torture, and now it’s come back to me when I’m in a safe place, no longer in survival mode. What they fail to understand is the psychological pain that all these refugees have. The therapist or doctor didn’t get a chance to learn about the healing approach of the Eastern philosophy, they only learned about Western civilization.
The Cambodian Association was able to get clients in and advocate for them to tell the doctors about the mental pain. Then, somebody has to show them how to take the bus, how to get to the doctor, and the Cambodian Association showed them. The Cambodian Association would drive them to see the doctor, in the old days before refugees had more children and the children could have their driver license and take their own parents. But, they would need someone to be their interpreter, and their children couldn’t, so the Cambodian Association had to step in and help with interpretation. Now we don’t have to do that anymore, because the needs have shifted. Not that the Cambodian community doesn’t need basic social needs anymore, but they have shifted. They have higher needs in terms of literature, advocacy, culture and arts. So we continue to fight for all of that right now. We’re fighting for higher needs.
It seems like mental and physical health advocacy was a big component for the Cambodian Association. Is there still a lot of working being done with mental health now with the Cambodian Association?
Right now, not a lot. Due to the education over the past 20 years, the children and family kind of recognize it and have their own connection and know-how to pick up a phone and call because there are therapeutic clinics that have many Cambodian staff. So we don’t have a working relationship like [that] anymore. Before, the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability would work with the Cambodian Association and give us a grant of $30,000 or $100,000 to spend on training, capacity building, recruitment, to bring clients to us. Cambodians would come to these events and share their experiences. It helped them build trust within the community. Now, they don’t do that anymore but if people need it, the Cambodian Association can refer them out. We have connections and contacts, but we don’t have the funding for this specifically like before.
Where are these agencies that specialize in mental health when it comes to Cambodian refugees? Are they specifically in North or South Philadelphia? Since they are known to have prominent Cambodian communities.
We have one in West Philly, on 42nd and Chestnut, one on Broad and Juniper, one on Broad and Logan, and a few others. There’s also private Cambodian therapists people could see on a private basis if you want to pay cash.
When you first joined the Cambodian Association, you mostly worked with social work. What do you primarily do now as Vice President?
As a board member, we don’t do the operation. We hired the executive director, who hires all of the staff to do all of the different jobs. So our job is to approve budgets, to look for funding sources, to approve financial package grants, to sign grant applications to different agencies, networking and telling other organizations and charitable foundations about Cambodian Association and the work we’ve been doing. All the board members are volunteers. We don’t get paid and we have to pay out of our pockets all the time. We don’t get anything out of it besides the satisfaction of seeing the people who need help get the help they need.
There’s two offices for the Cambodian Association, one in South Philadelphia and the other in North Philadelphia. How do the two offices differ in the work they do? Do they have different goals?
The South Philly location has a preschool and after school program. The North Philly location doesn’t have enough kids to form there, but they have a program for the elderly who want to come and hang out and some social work.
What do the educational programs that the Cambodian Association offer entail?
One of the missions is to maintain Cambodian culture. You just take your hand to point to one of the millions of aspects of the culture. So we point it to the dance and we pick children because we want the children to know where they came from, where their parents came from and why dance is so important in Cambodian culture. It’s very important in Cambodian culture because Cambodians related to dance since the beginning of Cambodian culture. The world loves us, recognizes us because of the dancing. We maintained it from 1979 until today, we still have that class. We also have a Heritage Program. We invite all the elders to come and invite young folks to come and chat. Pick a Cambodian dish and cook and share with your elders or cook with your elders. And that way you can trick your elders to tell you more stories about their struggles in Cambodia. Now, before they tell you that you have to soften them up a little bit. Open up about yourself, your worries and concerns. They love to teach. They love to share that. You give them the opportunity, they will open up to you.
What would you say to Cambodian youths who would like to get more involved with their culture?
Right now, we don’t have a lot of Cambodian-American volunteers who go to the Cambodian Association. We see more Cambodian exchange students from Cambodia. They come and volunteer because they’re so curious about Cambodians living in America. If you come to the Cambodian New Year Celebration [held on April 15th this year], you can come and learn about the culture. Your parents or grandparents will thank you for knowing about them without asking them. That’s one of the greatest honors because they don’t want to open up or burden you. But if you could learn somewhere else about them and their suffering, they will appreciate you.
More information about the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia can be found on their website, which features the upcoming events they host and other organizations they collaborate with.
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