Her Mission Is to Help Other Refugees

Sunly Winkles began piecing her life together 10 years ago.

Having lost her husband and four children in the Cambodian war, she arrived in Garden Grove from a refugee camp in Thailand. At age 31, she began again.

Winkles, whose name then was Sunly Ping Kim Suor, became an immigrant caseworker who would dedicate a decade to helping Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees absorb American culture.

It is her way of overcoming the painful memories of war and escaping to a new country. She relives those experiences every day through the hundreds of Asian immigrants she helps in her job as case manager for Long Beach Asian Pacific, an outpatient care program.

“I know how hard it was coming here as a refugee,” she said. “No money, no food; I didn’t get much help from anyone.”

As case manager, her job is to act as a liaison between the patients and the medical staff, explaining prescriptions, for instance. But Winkles takes the job several steps further. To many of these immigrants, she is mother, sister and friend.

“I tell them, ‘If you have a problem, call Sunly,’ ” she said. “ ‘If you need someone to complain to, to watch you cry, call Sunly.’ ”

Many of the patients have no idea how to go about daily activities such as taking a bus or going to the supermarket, so Winkles acts as a personal guide.

“If I don’t explain it to them, who will?” she said.

She sometimes has traveled bus routes with them, explaining where their stops are and the amount of change needed for the fare.

She does it, she says, because she once got lost in Long Beach and had to walk several miles to a friend’s house. Winkles laughs at the memory, but it is something she wants to help others avoid.

A Cambodian educator, Winkles entered an English language class when she arrived in Orange County and became proficient in several months. Eventually, she got a job teaching--a career she quickly abandoned.

“The children would run up to me every morning and call me mother,” she said, choking back tears. “I would remember my own children, and I would get depressed. I saw the hunger and the poverty, and I thought, ‘I’m alone in this country; it could happen to me.’ I was not confident that I would be able to make it.”

That was the low point of Winkles’ life, she said. Since then, she has worked for several immigration organizations, helping newcomers find their way.

“They are lost. They don’t know where to go,” she said. “They need help, and if I don’t take the time, I can’t guarantee that the next person will.”

The immigrants have come to rely on her, said Winkles, who is now married and has five adult stepchildren. She says that she is happy with her life and that if she had it all to do again, she would choose the same career.

“I get to share my experiences and help people,” she said. “I give them hope that they can make it. I tell them don’t be in a hurry. And if they ever need someone, to call Sunly.”