Thursday, October 7, 2004 

From refugee to business owner, she looks to export hope

By TESS NACELEWICZ, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

Making a new life in America has been a challenge for Xanh "Lilly" Pyle, but one she has welcomed.

She was just 19 when she arrived in the United States as a soldier bride in 1972. She spoke so little English that her favorite television show was "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom," about wild animals. "They don't speak, I don't speak," Pyle explained.  

When her marriage ended in divorce eight years later, she worked several jobs while raising her two children. She also went to school to earn her high school equivalency diploma and to become a cosmetologist. Today, she has a hair salon in Portland's Old Port and has put her children through college.

Pyle, an elegant, petite woman with a determined, no-nonsense personality, bristles when she hears people say the war in Vietnam was a mistake. "It was the right thing," she said. "It gave me my life. I want to say 'Thank you.' "

Two return trips to Vietnam have made her feel especially grateful for her opportunities here. In fact, the contrast between what she has and what the women in her home village lack has spurred her to launch an effort to help them. She has started a new nonprofit organization, the Vietnamese Hope Foundation, to raise funds to do just that.

The fledgling organization was established to help women get an education or start a small business. So far, Pyle has collected $1,800 - from her loyal hair salon clients - which she gave to a grammar school in her home village of Dong Ha. She also has donated about $1,600 of her own money to help several women.

Her foundation is to be a personal one, with Pyle planning to fly to Vietnam and interview prospective aid recipients herself. Pyle also plans to personally deliver the funds to needy villagers, or have members of the foundation's board, which is still being formed, deliver the money to ensure it reaches intended recipients.

One member of her board is Andrew Campbell, a Waldoboro lawyer, who has worked with disabled Vietnam veterans. He said he is getting involved because Pyle "has a driving vision I'd like to support . . . Lilly is a very nice person. I hope she can succeed."

A little bit goes a long way in Vietnam, where the average salary is $20 a month, Pyle said. For example, $200 she gave to a woman with a sick daughter helped save the girl from having her leg amputated, Pyle said. 

Pyle's memories of growing up in Dong Ha are a mixture of happiness and horror. The simple village - she grew up with no running water or electricity - was next to a strategic inland waterway where the U.S. military built a boat launch. 

As a child, she made friends with many American soldiers. But the village also was the target of raids by the Viet Cong. With the men away fighting, Pyle at age 14 had to help guard the village with an automatic rifle. She and other children would race to put out burning debris from rocket attacks and flares before it ignited the straw roofs of houses. Sometimes, they were too late. "When a rocket hit and the people burned, it smelled so bad," Pyle said. The smell of food cooking now can occasionally trigger that awful memory, she said.

Dong Ha was evacuated and the family - Pyle is the oldest of 10 children - moved to a refugee camp. Pyle came to the United States, but her family returned to their village when the war ended. She wasn't able to visit until 1995, when she saw her ailing father for the last time. She made a second visit in January, to have her son and daughter meet their grandmother for the first time.

While there, she was struck by the plight of women in the very poor village. Their husbands, unable to find jobs, often drink and beat them, Pyle said. She hopes that money from the foundation will free the women from dependence on abusive partners by allowing them to do such things as establish a small sewing business or rent a spot in the market - the cost is a princely $200 to $300 per year - to sell their chickens or ducks.

Pyle also plans to use the money to do such simple but effective things as fill bomb craters where mosquitoes breed. "My goal is to help my village first and then to help other villages nearby," she said.

More information about Pyle's efforts is available at: www.VietnameseHopeFoundation.org.

Staff Writer Tess Nacelewicz can be contacted at 791-6367 or at:

tnacelewicz@pressherald.com