About US
The most important goal of our organization is to improve the life of Mien people and progress of our community. We seek to support, empower, and provide high quality programs to the Mien in the United States and other parts of the world when possible. You can learn more about what we do below.
Educational Advancement: We seek to provide support to Mien students and scholars who are interested in conducting research on the Mien through scholarship programs and host Mien academic conferences to offer Mien and Janx “non-Mien” opportunities to learn about our story.
Social and Cultural Advancement:Understanding our progress and challenges, a group of concerned Mien professionals have come together to launch The Center for Mien Advancement to develop programs to support the advancement of Mien people in the United States and abroad. We strive to promote and support Mien people in education, economic, social, and political advancements. It is our hope and dream that all Mien will gain the opportunity to achieve success and reach their life potential as individual and ethnic success as a transnational indigenous people.
We seek to educate and advance Mien culture through education, research, publications, and cultural events.
Our oral-based language tradition has made it difficult for us to maintain Mien language as one cohesive language. Wherever a group of Mien migrate to, they adopt, adapt, and learn the languages of their surroundings. This practice has made it difficult for many Mien groups to even communicate with each other. We seek to support the use of the unified Mien Roman script to maintain our language. We further support linguistic studies to advance the understanding of our language and make changes to the current Mien orthography as necessary.
Economic Advancement: We seek to share knowledge and information about economic opportunities to Mien community members. We hope to open up the minds of our people and inspire them to seek careers and entrepreneurship to improve their economic standings.
Video productions - In the age of social media, we believe that video production is essential to reach the broadest Mien audiences. We produce short video clips and documentary films to educate Mien and Janx about our experience, history, culture, and struggles.
Our Story
Our Story: Without a country of our own, Mien diaspora has placed us in many countries leaving us with our ethnicity as the only unifying voice. We recognize that Mien, being isolated in the remote mountains for centuries, lacked access to the modern world and opportunities to achieve educational, social, economic, and political progress until recently. Due to our military participation in support of America’s Central Intelligence Agency’s operations in Laos during the Secret War in Laos, we became refugees and were granted admission to the United States, Canada, and France through humanitarian immigration policies. We have made much progress, particularly for those Mien in the western countries. Whereas our parents had never had any opportunity to attend formal schools, our children today are all attending school and are achieving great academic successes receiving not only high school diplomas but graduate degrees in multiple disciplines. Whereas our parents could not afford bicycles in Laos, most families own homes, multipole vehicles, and even boats and vacation home. Whereas our ancestors lived in isolation being treated as second class citizens, we are now able to exercise self-determination to chart the course of our own social progress to build ethnic pride and promote awareness of our ethnicity. Despite all that we have achieved, our progress is limited and relatively modest compared to the general population of the host country.
Understanding our progress and challenges, a group of concerned Mien professionals have come together to launch The Center for Mien Advancement to develop programs to support the advancement of Mien people in the United States and abroad. We strive to promote and support Mien people in education, economic, social, and political advancements. It is our hope and dream that all Mien will gain the opportunity to achieve success and reach their life potential as individual and ethnic success as a transnational indigenous people.
Our Team
The Center for Mien Advancement is powered by a diverse group of Mien professionals, educators, scholars, and community advocates who share a common vision: to uplift the Mien people globally. Our leadership and board members bring a deep understanding of our community’s history, challenges, and opportunities. Each member of our team is committed to serving with integrity, cultural awareness, and purpose.
Together, we develop strategies, lead initiatives, and ensure that every program we run reflects the values and needs of our people.
