Today we’d like to introduce you to Angel Chin.
Hi Angel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am Angel Chin, a refugee from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Myanmar is a beautiful country located between India, China, and Thailand. My ethnicity is Chin from Burma, South-East Asia. I resettled in Atlanta 15 years ago. I’m a full-time working mom, a mother, a wife, a friend, and a leader for the community, and now called an “inspired one”.
During my life in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I contributed services to the Chin and Burmese refugee community in language services and health and safety outreach education. After resettling in Atlanta, the same passion and calling drew me to give service back, starting with small help to others. Serving with little help on reading neighbors’ mails and translating for them, taking neighbors to their child’s school when a school bus is delayed or missed, helping out with forms and assisting with interpretation at offices, going with the community for their job for interpretation and translation helps, giving a ride to neighbors and friends for their grocery shopping, Doctor appointment, personal appointment on my spare time. As I’m a believer in self-care tips and mental health practices, some of my time goes to listening to my peer women about their stories of pain, feeling, and dreams, sharing self-care tips, and connecting to mental health activities that are available in communities. Thereafter, resettling from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I resided in an apartment called “Indian Valley” in Clarkston, located at NE Atlanta in Dekalb County. As we know, Clarkston is noted for its ethnic diversity and is often referred to as “the most diverse square mile in America”. I have some sweet memories that never fade away from my early life in the US.
My little help saved a wife from domestic abuse and was able to connect with appropriate services, a child was saved from hearing loss by connecting with a service provider on time. I’ve been with a mother that needed to go to labor at midnight for a hospital trip, who didn’t have transportation and was limited in English. I’ve taken a group of community that needed to apply for jobs in poultry farms and don’t have an interpreter who was willing to volunteer. I’ve been engaging my passion for helping others, empowering families with young children, especially with children who are developmentally delayed, women facing domestic violence in their lives and don’t know whom to approach, teenagers that are struggling with their education and new cultural stress in a new country, and some other social are that found. As I walk through volunteering and helping others, I simply support others. While I worked as an Educator in the Early Education field, as I have a strong heart for volunteering passion, I contributed my spare time to an outreach project, ethnic social circle activities, Clarkston Community Project for Children and Women program to support mental health, self-care, and prevention services. Because of that calling and demand from where I’ve served others, I decided to work and earn a Burmese/Chin Interpreter license in the legal, education, and healthcare fields in 2015. Currently, through my work in the humanitarian field as Senior Caseworker at International Rescue Community in Atlanta.
As a Senior Caseworker, I’ve to train, guide, mentor colleagues, support program quality assurance efforts, and serve clients per their eligibility and requirements. I’m available to share my skills in various areas above and beyond, starting from the front desk lobby across the departments through the Shop of Hope area whenever colleagues are needed at the department’s request for support. There is no limitation when I’m available to do so. In my work break time, I often walk with colleagues and friends and listen to those who need to share a day-to-day life barrier, joy, and success. I became a listener and showed a little help to my colleagues with positive mental support by listening quietly with confidentiality. Sometimes, a small calling can change lives and inspire others differently. The calling I’ve been working on is lifting me to become “a human”, “a woman”. At present, I’m pursuing further studies at GSU- Andrew Young School of policy studies in a graduate program to build up better judgment to serve. Today, unintentionally, I became an Advocate for my family, my friends, and my community, and as an inspired person and a woman with a passion for service. I learned from my past when we simply helped others, we didn’t know that a tiny help could change or save lives. Thank you Voyage ATL for giving me this privilege to express part of my life chapter here.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I was seldom faced, similar to a book being judged by its cover in my early life and professional career. Sometimes I question how human beings categorize each other: Is it by money? or by educational level? Or by popularity? Or by being a specific color or race? During life as an advocate for rights, services, and voices: Being a human is to give back service in day-to-day life, not a big and high-expectation one, just simple things. Sharing time with someone that needs to talk to, giving a ride to those who are in need, providing one meal that someone is currently striving for, and holding the hand of someone who just needs to hold. I believe in a simple way of helping others could turn a big change in others’ lives.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
After working as an Educator in the Early Education chapter for about a decade, my career turned to the humanitarian chapter. I had the opportunity to join the International Rescue Committee in Atlanta, US program as a Resettlement Caseworker in June 2021, thereafter some months of working as a Resettlement Caseworker, I am promoted to Senior Caseworker role. Before I got into all about my role and day-to-day professional life, I would like to introduce you to the International Rescue Committee. The IRC works in more than 40 countries, in 28 US cities to help people affected by the humanitarian crisis to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives. The IRC responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, including the conflict in Ukraine and the crisis in Afghanistan worldwide, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic well-being, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. And we are proud to fight for a world where women and girls have an equal chance to succeed.
The mission of IRC is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disasters, including the climate crisis, to service, recover, and gain control over their future. The IRC in Atlanta team responds and coordinates timely pre and post-arrival services to ensure each client has living essentials such as housing, food, medical care, access to transportation, and orientation to their new environment. As a Senior Caseworker, I’ve to train new members, volunteers, and interns per request, guide and mentor colleagues in day-to-day challenges, support program quality assurance efforts, and serve clients per their eligibility and requirements. I’m very fortunate to play a part in my professional skills along with passion and talent and build a positive team spirit within the department across the agency-wide. Please join the IRC supporters from around the world who have pledged to stand by people whose lives have been shattered by conflicts and disasters and help them to rebuild.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Working in the humanitarian social field required bringing in strong passion and working with self-care, and team player is key player too. Qualified degree and education alone may not be enough to join a humanitarian, social field. Because social service is not where a place to make money, it is a place of serving others, restoring others’ life and value, and empowering others. The return of being a humanitarian worker in the social field brings joy and peace when we found clients are getting to self-sufficiency in life, shining with their new hope, and stable in their life in a new country.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rescue.org/who-we-are
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ircatlanta/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ircatlanta
