PAWTUCKET – This Thanksgiving, in many homes across Rhode Island, families busied themselves preparing a traditional turkey meal. Some turned to recipes kept in the family for generations, while others did a last-minute online search and picked the first one to show up.
Menghong Phly did neither. In fact, Phly and his wife, Rachana Bun, had never heard of Thanksgiving before arriving in Rhode Island from Cambodia two months ago with their two children. But they are celebrating the holiday in their own way.
Phly did not trade balmy Cambodia, with its lush mountains and jungles and striking ancient ruins, for Rhode Island simply for a change of scenery. He is a refugee, who, after fleeing to Thailand, was recently resettled in Rhode Island through the help of the Refugee Dream Center, a nonprofit in Providence. Earlier this year the center also helped resettle his brother in the state. (So far this year, the Refugee Dream Center has resettled 38 refugees and asylum seekers in Rhode Island.)
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