Success Story

When she was 15 years old, Khmao’s family won a lottery to come to the United States, where her hope for a fresh start was discouraged, and her voice was again silenced. Although she had hoped to make something of this opportunity – to go to school and find a good job—Khmao’s mother insisted on an arranged marriage. To comply with her mother’s wishes, Khmao dropped out of high school and was married, but after a week she ran away from home to escape this relationship.

Years later, Khmao found herself alone in Seattle with little education, limited English, and no job skills. After bouncing from one dead-end job to the next, Khmao decided that she needed to make a change for herself and her children. In 2004, she enrolled in the Seattle Goodwill’s STRIVE program, which some have called a ‘job-training boot camp.’

In this setting, the timid Khmao not only learned important job skills—but also discovered how to speak up for herself. Of her experience in STRIVE, she says, “All my life I had been put down. When I came to Goodwill, things started changing for me… my teachers encouraged me to be strong and brave. It’s like a new world to me.”

Khmao went on to work in one of Seattle Goodwill’s retail stores as a cashier, and then was promoted to customer service agent. There she found a community of co-workers, customers and fellow program graduates. Finally, Khmao was able to think about herself differently; as if for the first time, she considered, “Maybe [people] really want to know what I want to do, maybe my life is important.”

Through Goodwill, Khmao has found her voice, and the confidence to tell her story.  She says, “I make it a point to tell my children what I went through… And I make sure they know what price I paid in my life to give them the bright future they expect to have.”