Vietnamese Community Of Orange County Inc

Three Vietnamese elders burned incense and prayed before a traditional altar Wednesday to bless a 30,000-square-foot lot that eventually will be the home of a new senior center. Construction of the two-story Asian Senior Acculturation Center on 1st Street is scheduled to begin in April, according to Tuong Duy Nguyen, executive director of the Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., which will operate the center. The nonprofit organization, currently located at 3701 W. McFadden Ave.

Rocked by recent reports of gangs, teen pregnancy and alienation among Vietnamese-American youth, about 30 parents came to Westminster High School Tuesday night for advice on how to handle their troubled young people. "I don't want to say that it's hopeless, but the situation is alarming," said Chi Duy Do, a counselor with Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., a nonprofit social services agency.

Questions about welfare cutbacks for refugees and repatriation of boat people were aimed Tuesday at Warren Zimmermann, director of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Refugee Affairs, by residents of Orange County's Little Saigon. Appointed to the job about eight months ago, Zimmermann held a community meeting as part of a fact-finding mission to gather the views of the largest concentration of Vietnamese outside Vietnam. "We are at the beginning of a new administration.

Scrambling to get ahead of an expected wave of juvenile crime, the city's Police Department has joined hands with Vietnamese community leaders and entered a world of research that until now has been the almost exclusive domain of ivory tower academics. In September, the department brought a social psychologist on staff as director of an in-house research unit, and last month won a grant for a yearlong study of the causes of delinquency in Southeast Asian youth.

The Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc. will hold ground-breaking ceremonies Wednesday for a 7,000-square-foot center in Santa Ana to help recently immigrated seniors adapt to Western culture. The Asian Senior Acculturation Center, to be located at 1618 W. 1st St., will provide companionship, meals and activities for up to 150 seniors, according to Tuong Duy Nguyen, executive director of the nonprofit organization.

Several organizations in Orange County are looking for volunteers to help refugees become accustomed to American ways: - Catholic Immigration and Resettlement office of the Diocese of Orange, 953-9236. United States Catholic Conference of Bishops volunteers and others work to provide moral support, aid with housing, other material needs, jobs and learning English. - St. Anselm's Immigrant and Refugee Community Center, 537-0608.

A 73-year-old woman, lost and disoriented, was taken by police to a hospital, where doctors found $36,000 sewn into her underwear and hat, authorities here said Friday. Lt. Robert Burnett said the woman, Muoi Thi Tran, is Vietnamese and might have been carrying the cash because of a cultural distrust of banks. The woman's family contacted police Friday afternoon after a local Vietnamese-language radio station broadcast information about her, Lt. Mike Schliskey said.

In the article "Breaking the Barriers to Help" (March 30) depicting the commendable efforts of a group of drug counselors working to help Orange County's Asian population, the indiscriminate use of misleading quotes and gratuitous assertions have conveyed a most unflattering, and certainly untrue, image of the Vietnamese-American community. Of the Vietnamese immigrants, for example, a drug counselor was quoted as saying: "When they come here, many are already on drugs." The fact is all Vietnamese refugees and immigrants have to pass strict physical health screenings, which include blood, urine and tuberculosis tests, X-rays etc., before boarding the plane for America.

A 73-year-old woman found lost and disoriented in Westminster was taken by police officers to a local hospital, where doctors found $36,000 sewn into her underwear and hat, authorities said Friday. Lt. Robert Burnett said officers aren't sure why the woman was carrying that much cash in such a manner. The woman's family contacted police Friday afternoon after a local Vietnamese-language radio station broadcast information about her, Lt. Mike Schliskey said.