2012 Bell Awards | Janet Miller serves as an advocate for refugee families

Purchase Image

Janet Miller, a Bell Award winner, has been a tireless advocate for southeast Asia refugee families, helping them assimilate to the US. Miller, right, meets with Pa, left, and Mueh, center, Hla at the Hla home on Kathleen Avenue. The Hlas are originally from Burma and were living in Thailand when they came to the US, settling in Louisville with the help of Miller. Miller works through Crescent Hill Baptist Church, Resurrection Episcopal Church and St. Mark's Episcopal Church. September 25, 2012 / David R. Lutman/Special to the Courier-Journal

They come from refugee villages in Thailand, arriving in an American city called Louisville.

Knowing little English and less about the local culture, they find a guiding hand in Janet Miller.

Miller, 63, of Beechmont, serves as an advocate and friend for the new arrivals, helping them with school enrollment, opening bank accounts, accompanying them to medical appointments and assisting them spiritually as they untangle the more complex aspects of life here.

For her work with refugee families and the staffs at Crescent Hill Baptist Church, Resurrection Episcopal Church and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Miller has been honored as a 2012 recipient of WLKY’s annual Bell Award.

“They have so many issues,” Miller explained of the refugee families with children. “We take so many things for granted, all that crazy, great stuff.”

Miller initially got involved when her church sponsored a family through Kentucky Refugee Ministries, and she and a priest took the family “under our wing,” she said.

The refugees she helps are primarily members of Burmese ethnic groups Karen and Karenni, and come from two camps along the Thai-Burma border.

“I feel like God sent them to me,” Miller said, pausing. “I had just lost my job and was needing something to do. … It’s very nice, it’s something I enjoy doing. I’m one of these shy, bashful people.”

The typical family Miller assists has six to eight members, and she helps up to 17 families at a time. Assimilating the children into the school environment is crucial to her mission. She helps register the kids and assist them with immunization requirements and other paperwork.

“Sometimes I’ll go to the hospital or doctor’s office with them, help translate,” she said.

She is proud of having played a role in helping one of the first refugee families to purchase a home here.

She is not without challenges herself, being legally blind. So she enlists her relatives to help her get around.

She was a mail handler for the post office, and has been on disability retirement because of her eyesight since the mid-1990s. Her husband is retired military and is preparing to retire from the private sector. They have two sons.

“I get lots of love and satisfaction,” she said. “And blessing. It blesses me a lot. It’s like you get a do-over with your kids but this time they listen.”

She let out a hearty laugh.

Reporter Tom O’Neill can be reached at (502) 582-4653.