FORT WAYNE – A highlighted blond streak runs through Thae Ohu’s dark hair. The fingernails tapping her cell phone are decorated with a colorful design. She listens to hip-hop.
Which is to say she fits the stereotype of the typical American teen at North Side High School, where she is a junior this year.
But she’s also a minority, and it’s her counterparts in the local Burmese community who have her preoccupied lately.
Thae, 16, and Ar Ma, a South Side High School student, recently attended a national conference about underserved teen victims, and now they hope to bring what they learned back to Fort Wayne.
Teens in general are considered an underserved population when it comes to crime, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime. They are victimized more than any other age group, often engage in risky behaviors that contribute to crime and often don’t know about available support programs.
The Underserved Teen Victim Initiative training, a program funded by the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime, focuses on an even narrower segment of teens: youth with disabilities; runaway and homeless youth; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth; and Arab, Asian, Latino, Muslim, Native American, and Pacific Islander youth.
Thae said she sees dating violence as one of the biggest challenges facing teens, especially within immigrant and refugee populations. But she’s still trying to determine the best way to share important information with those communities.
She hopes her status as an Asian-American will help her understand the challenges other underserved teens face.
“I have one foot in my parents’ country and one foot in America,” she said. “It’s something teens here have to deal with. As long as I can help them, then I can really help myself.”
Thae’s story begins before she was born, when her parents were forced to leave Burma, or Myanmar as it is called by its ruling military junta.
Her parents moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where Thae was born, and ran a successful business. But they wanted better educational opportunities for Thae and her sister, so they moved to Pittsburgh when she was 4 years old.
They wanted their children to strive – a common trait among immigrant and refugee parents, Thae said. But parents also might bring old customs and traditions that might not be compatible with American life.
To Thae, the subject of teen dating violence resonated when she attended the training. Students offered real-life examples of programs implemented in other communities. One group made a film that discusses rape among teens; some hold educational assemblies or make T-shirts, Thae said.
In any case, Thae hopes she and Ar Ma – a refugee from Burma who arrived in the U.S. only a couple of years ago – will be able to work with their schools to reach a broad audience.
It will be up to the Rev. Saneta Maiko, founder of Crime Victim Care of Allen County, to help Thae and Ar Ma decide how and where they should share their message. Tatenda Chakanyuka, a Canterbury School graduate and Xavier University senior who accompanied the teens to D.C., will help, too.
The non-profit Crime Victim Care has five employees and 25 volunteers trained in multiple languages and the vernacular of the courts, social services and law enforcement. The group helps non-English speaking immigrant and refugee victims of crime.
Maiko said Crime Victim Care, which applied for the grant to participate in the program, was one of 25 sites chosen because of the number of young immigrants and refugees in the area.
Maiko also hopes the teens will consider addressing what he sees as a growing gulf between refugees and their parents, who, because of a language barrier, often become dependent on their children. Parents feel helpless because of the role reversal; they want to control their teens because so much else is outside their control, he said.
That can result in teens rebelling, and Maiko worries there will be increases in gang activity and drug and alcohol abuse amongst the refugee community.
He hopes teens such as Thae and Ar Ma – who will create their programs this fall – will be able to have a ripple effect in the community.
“These are the leaders I’m going to pull together,” he said.
