"They have so much compassion and love and genuine friendliness for me," she said.
"They had very few chickens, and so to have a pig sacrificed or a chicken sacrificed in my honor was such an example of friendship and hospitality."

Now, Reibold, who has dedicated herself to repaying that kindness, has won $10,000 for her work with the Montagnard Human Rights Organization. Today she will receive the 2005 Unsung Heroines Award from Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who nominated her.

Reibold is being honored for her 17 years of advocacy work with Lutheran Family Services, the Vietnam Highlands Assistance Project and the Montagnard Human Rights Organization. The groups help resettle Montagnards, who call themselves "Dega" or "Anak Cu Chiang" -- the original or the first people.

The group sided with the United States during the Vietnam War. Today, the Vietnamese government persecutes the darker-skinned, high cheekboned people for their past allegiances, physical differences and Christian faith. The government has taken away their land and forced the people into the jungle and refugee camps.

Now, almost 6,000 of them have resettled in North Carolina. Mitsubishi Motors USA Foundation has given the Unsung Heroines award to 38 women in 20 states and in Washington, D.C., since 1998.

A former producer in broadcast services at N.C. State University, Reibold has traveled to Vietnam and made documentaries about the Montagnards' culture and life in exile.

"[The award is] a great honor and privilege, and with it I hope to focus more attention on the plight of the Montagnards," she said Thursday from her Raleigh home. "I'm really grateful to Sen. Dole because she's been a real advocate for the Montagnards. She's taken a real stance on religious freedom."

Anna Schneider, a member of the Mitsubishi foundation's board, helped establish the award eight years ago to give back to the community, she said.

"Our foundation is very small and very focused, and our focus is to promote women and minorities in the workplace," Schneider said. "Every woman I meet has a story, and every one is more impressive than the last one.

"When Sen. Dole brought Kay to our attention, she completely embodied this Unsung Heroine image," she said.

Reibold said she does what she can to help the Montagnard people in their search for cultural preservation and self-determination.

"This award is about persistence, and about a little circle of influence I have in Vietnam," she said. "They want to practice their religion freely and raise their families freely among their Vietnamese neighbors. I am fighting to allow them the basic freedoms."

Source: The News& Observer