Serving the Displaced: Beverly Martin and the Hmong Refugees of Ban Vinai
Through the algorithms of social media, I unexpectedly came across a striking body of photography captured by Beverly Martin. What initially drew my attention was not just the historical context of the images—taken of Hmong people following the communist Pathet Lao takeover in 1975—but the subjects themselves. Among them was my mother, Sia Xiong.
In 1983, my mother was in her late teens or early twenties, serving as a midwife in the Ban Vinai refugee camps in Loei Province, Thailand. Seeing her captured so candidly in a moment of history stirred a deep curiosity in me: How did Beverly come to be on the other side of the world, working as a nurse amid a humanitarian crisis—specifically, in Ban Vinai?
At 30 years old, Beverly and her partner, Alan Wright—both trained nurses—left Washington, D.C., with plans to pursue volunteer work in Nepal. They first traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, where they began exploring job opportunities. There, they came across a posting from ZOA, a Netherlands-based international relief organization, seeking nurses for a refugee camp in northeastern Thailand called Ban Vinai. ZOA, formerly known as the Southeast Asia Foundation, was founded in 1973 and provides both emergency humanitarian aid and long-term recovery support to people affected by crises worldwide.
Beverly and Alan’s decision to accept the job led them to Ban Vinai, a refugee camp housing 45,000 Hmong individuals and families who had fled genocide in the mountains of Laos after the United States withdrew from the region at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. ZOA (short for Zuid Oost-Azië, meaning Southeast Asia in Dutch) managed the hospital and public health system in the camp during the early 1980s. Beverly had never heard of the Hmong people before this assignment. Yet, driven by both necessity and curiosity, she accepted the role and worked in the camps for a year and a few months, before her contract ended.
After returning to the United States, Beverly held various nursing positions, earned a Master’s in Public Health, and eventually became a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. Originally from Boscobel, Wisconsin, she grew up on a farm. It was her upbringing that inspired her choice of retirement setting. She purchased a five-acre 1876 Swedish farmstead near Lindsborg, Kansas,with three friendly dogs, two cats, two sheep, and a goat named Dolly. Beverly continues to share her experiences and skills, positively impacting those around her. Her property, Our Little Grove, is open to visitors through Hipcamp and offers a peaceful retreat surrounded by what she lovingly refers to as “her variety of creatures.” You can find her listing by searching Our Little Grove on Hipcamp.com.
What was intended to be a temporary placement became a formative chapter in Beverly’s life. Her time at Ban Vinai forged enduring relationships and offered her an intimate view of a community navigating displacement and resilience. Through both her nursing and her photography, Beverly bore witness to history in the making—capturing powerful images that now, decades later, continue to surface and resonate across generations — Youa Awasthi.
