Boat People SOS - Houston

Our staff, volunteers and board members are dedicated to serving this mission by growing an organizational culture of community service rooted in the values of shared leadership, excellence, transparency, and learning.

Founded in 1980, BPSOS conducted many joint rescue-at-sea missions with international organizations and rescued more than three thousand Vietnamese boat people in the South China Sea. In response to major shifts in the U.S. and international policies towards Vietnamese boat people, in 1990, BPSOS moved its headquarters from San Diego, California, to Northern Virginia and concentrated on policy, advocacy and casework. BPSOS also created the Vietnamese Refugee Private Sponsorship/Canada program to resettle over 300 refugees from Southeast Asia and Hong Kong to Canada. In 1991, BPSOS also developed Legal Assistance fro Vietnamese Asylum Seekers (LAVAS) to send pro bono lawyers and paralegals to help thousands of Vietnamese boat people in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong in their refugee claims. In late 1996, as most boat people had been either repatriated or resettled, BPSOS shifted its focus to helping and empowering Vietnamese immigrants and refugees in America. Since then, BPSOS has been establishing new programs and services to assist local community members in immigration services, public health, ESL for naturalization, and other social and educational service programs. BPSO programs have helped many local Vietnamese communities form community-based organizations and have provided training for their leadership. BPSOS? effectiveness comes mainly from its ability to mobilize volunteers through the various service programs that the organization has been developing for the past two decades and from its collaboration with an extensive network of contacts and affiliates within the Vietnamese-American community. Currently, BPSOS is cooperating with more than 30 local and national service providers and community-based organizations. BPSOS has published over a dozen reports and numerous policy papers; its officers have frequently testified before Congress and refugee and immigrant issues. BPSOS has been featured on television programs, including Nightline, 60 minutes, Voice of America, BBC, and Australian Broadcasting Company, and in major newspapers and publications such as The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Newsweek, Hong Kong Standard, and Straight Times (Malaysia). In 2002 BPSOS started its own monthly newspaper Mach Song.