According to an article by Wameng Moua (“Brothers Honored as First Hmong in Minnesota”, Hmong Today, 12/9/2006), there were only 2 stores that sold Asian groceries in Minnesota in 1976. Today, there are hundreds of Khw Hmoob (Hmong Stores), as well as stores serving other new immigrants and refugees. Their value cannot be overstated. Not only do they supply familiar “comfort foods” in a strange new land, but they also connect otherwise isolated individuals to establish a new community.

At Karen Marketplace, located at 1377 Arcade Street in Saint Paul, the warmth is not only in the delicious samusa sold from the deli counter, but in the kindness of the proprietors, Ms. Kyi Kyi Lwin and Ms. Piyanud Aoh Montgomery. Karen Marketplace is only the second store in the Twin Cities and possibly the state of Minnesota operated by and for members of Minnesota’s newly arrived Karen ethnic community. These newcomers from Burma, after a sojourn of many years in Thai refugee camps, are finding a warm welcome from Karen Marketplace.

Cooperating with HAP’s Participant Readiness for Employment Program, Ms. Lwin and Ms. Montgomery have trained more than a half-dozen Karen refugee job-seekers in the art and science of commercial cooking, food service, customer service, cash register operation, business telephone answering techniques, store inventory and stocking, and janitorial work. These Karen newcomers were very limited in their English proficiency, had resumes that lacked much or any US work experience or job experience outside the home, and lacked confidence. After four weeks of hands-on training and being gently ushered from using only their native language to using more and more English, the trainees beam with confidence and are proud to show off their new skills. Two of the graduates of training at Karen Marketplace have been offered paid work at the store.

Ms. Lwin and Ms. Montgomery, as women and as relative newcomers themselves from Southeast Asia, are empowering role-models, especially to the female trainees. “They are friends working together to make their dreams happen,” says PREP alumna Sar Kwei, “After getting to know them, I can see they aren’t so different from me. They make me think about what I can do someday.”

Hmong American Partnership is proud to work with partners who are so kind, generous and supportive as Karen Marketplace.

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