United Hmong Family, Inc. And Hmong Women Soccer

On behalf of the board of trustees, we thank everyone for your input on the matters related to the Hmong International Freedom Festival (HIFF) sports competition prizes and payouts to all our competing teams.  In recent days following our announcements there have been statements made on many social media platforms questioning the integrity of the organization which in turn caused much angst and some confusion regarding our event and even the legitimacy of our procedures.

The board and HIFF event planners were able to meet with several concerned individuals over the past few days to hear everyone’s concerns and ideas and share the statistics and procedures we use as an organization in putting forth this massive event. We appreciate those that were willing to dialogue and your agreements to the changes to the prizes for each competition.

The United Hmong Family, Inc. strives to preserve a tradition that has been bringing friends families and revelers to the Twin Cities for over 4 decades to enjoy our rich culture and learn more about the flight of the Hmong to America. In hosting events it is our top priority to secure the right assurances, licenses, permits and having EMS and police on site and ready to always respond immediately. Secondly, we know that in order to sustain this event our procedures must be intact, and the organization continues to be in good standing with all our finances.

We appreciate the individuals that were open to meet in person and have candid conversations and learn about who we are and came together to make this event better something every participant can be proud to call their own. We look forward to these iconic events 40th anniversary as Minnesotans continue to welcome not only local vendors, athletes but also the family and friends that come from all over our nation and all over the world.

Thank you for reaffirming we are all in this together. Below is a statement from one of the individuals who reached out and met with our organization:

I would like to thank the Board of the United Hmong Family, Inc. for making the time to talk to me tonight regarding Hmong Women Soccer. As a representative for the Hmong Women Soccer community, we have felt that our voices were not being met when it came to bad fields and low payouts every annual J4 for festival.

Tonight, I was given the opportunity to address concerns from our Hmong Women Soccer community with statistics to help discuss the value of our point of view from the Hmong women athletes who play soccer in our community in increasing pay and providing better playing fields for this year’s 40th annual Hmong Freedom Festival.

I am happy to say that our voices and concerns have been heard and the Board of the United Hmong Family, Inc. are more than happy to help support our vision.  I’d like to thank everyone who helped to get our voices heard and I’d like to thank the Board of the United Hmong Family, Inc. for taking their time to meet with me to create opportunities for both parties so that we can be a partnership not only this year but for many years to come. -Pa Kou Thao