The beginnings of ARC
In October 1979, as images of the Cambodian “Killing Fields” filled headlines, Susan remembers seeing a cover of Time and feeling an unmistakable pull. “Our homeland needs our help,” she told her sister Patricia. The sisters had grown up in Taiwan and Thailand; their father Capt. Frederick Walker served as Chief Pilot for Air America.
What followed was swift and unexpected. After attending what they thought was a volunteer meeting organized by the budding American Refugee Committee in Minneapolis, Patricia asked the Dean at Mayo Medical School for permission to volunteer, and was sent to Thailand within weeks. Susan volunteered at the Minneapolis office, but soon a telegram from Thailand arrived: “1 million refugees at border, cannot handle it alone, send Susan Walker immediately.” Days later, at age 26, with limited experience but fluency in Thai and managerial skills, Susan found herself in Bangkok.
There was no one to receive her at the airport in Bangkok. No gradual on-boarding. No institutional infrastructure. ARC, founded by Neal Ball and Stan Breen, was improvising in real time.
The first volunteers were sent to the camps in Thailand on the Lao and Cambodian borders, including Ban Vinai, Khao-I-Dang and Site 2. These were chaotic, volatile, and rapidly changing spaces. ARC’s response evolved just as quickly. As Susan put it, “The ARC was an organization set up by people with a clear set of values when it comes to humanitarian work, but the way it functioned evolved over time.” Professional systems came later. The belief that every person in a humanitarian disaster setting deserves help, came first.
.jpeg)
.png)
