Critical Issues Facing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) released some Key Facts and Data.  Some of the facts are highlighted below, which dispel the model minority myth, and compound the work we are trying to do at Project Speak Out.

Critical Issues Facing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

DEMOGRAPHICS

• AAPIs represent over 30 countries and ethnic groups that speak over 100 different languages.

POVERTY

• Asian Americans living below poverty: 12.6% (U.S. average living below poverty: 12.4%).
• Poverty Rates of Hmong: 37.8%; Cambodian: 29.3%; Laotian: 18.5%; Vietnamese: 16.6%.

HEALTH

• High rates of limited English proficiency compound the obstacles AAPIs face in achieving good health. Many AAPIs in the U.S. cannot communicate effectively with healthcare providers.
• (Another proof of the need for better sex-ed in our community) Hepatitis B chronically infects about 1.3-1.5 million people in the U.S., and AAPIs account for over half of the chronic hepatitis B cases and resulting deaths.

EDUCATION

• Nearly one out of four AAPI students is Limited English Proficient and/or lives in a linguistically isolated household where parents have limited English proficiency.
• The high school drop-out rate among Southeast Asian Americans is staggering: 40% of Hmong, 38% of Laotian, and 35% of Cambodian populations do not complete high school.

LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT

• In a Gallup Poll, 30-31% of AAPIs surveyed reported incidents of employment discrimination, the largest of any group, with African Americans constituting the second largest at 26%.
• AAPIs only filed about 2-3% of the total employment discrimination complaints received by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against private employers.

IMMIGRATION

• AAPIs make up one of the fastest growing racial groups in the U.S., constituting about one-third of the one million legal immigrants who enter the U.S. annually.
• Nearly two-thirds of AAPIs are foreign-born.

HOUSING

• According to a study undertaken by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, one in five AAPIs experience discrimination in the rental and home buying process.
• AAPIs have suffered the largest percentage decline in homeownership of any racial group.

Sincerely,

N. Jerin Arifa

Project Speak Out Manager

New York Asian Women's Center (NYAWC)

Pregnant Asian women die at twice the rate of white pregnant women

As reported on this story from Women's eNews, pregnant Asian women die at twice the rate of white pregnant women in NYC.  Lack of prenatal care is one of the factors, especially since some of these Asian women have language and immigration barriers.

Another factor, although undocumented, might be domestic violence.  Pregnant women are 60.6% more likely to be beaten than women who are not pregnant.  Violence is cited as a pregnancy complication more often than diabetes, hypertension or any other serious complication.


This is another reason why Project Speak Out was created - to change community attitude and behaviors that allow perpetrators to beat and abuse one of the most helpless, yet necessary, group in our society - pregnant women.  


Sincerely,
N. Jerin Arifa
Project Speak Out Manager
New York Asian Women's Center (NYAWC)

Why Doesn't She Leave? The Answer about Domestic Violence Victims

In the Domestic Violence filed, one question comes up over and over again - Why doesn't she leave?  Next time someone asks you that question, or you are wondering the same thing yourself, please read the following two stories.  They prove why many victims don't leave - it becomes the most dangerous when a victim tries to leave her abuser and become a survivor.

Wife of ex-NYPD cop missing, feared dead

An excerpt:

Police are searching for a Bronx mother of four who has been missing since last Friday and is feared dead.

Tina Adovasio, 40, a nurse, had been fighting with her estranged husband, Edwin Coello, 40, a former NYPD police officer.

Adovasio filed for divorce just a month before going missing. Police responded to four domestic violence complaints over the course of her marriage with Coello.

“As a survivor of domestic violence, it doesn’t look good,” said Tanya Mcleod, a domestic violence survivor and senior campaign organizer of Voices Of Women. “When victims of domestic violence take 

a stand, that’s when their lives are at high risk.”

Eric Persaud, Queens man who burned girlfriend's face with hot iron, sentenced to 13 years in prison

An excerpt:

...Persaud, 36, flew into a rage on April 30, 2009, because he was upset that she'd called 911 a week before when he smashed her phone and computer. He promised to kill her if she called the cops again.

...Persaud called the woman hundreds of times from Rikers Island, begging her not to testify against him. 

Sincerely,
N. Jerin Arifa
Project Speak Out Manager
New York Asian Women's Center (NYAWC)

Domestic Violence Perpetrators hurt more than just their partners

The following is an example of how domestic violence perpetrators harm more than just their partners.  This is exactly why at Project Speak Out, we want to change the culture that permits and perpetuates domestic violence by changing community attitudes and behaviors toward it.


Sincerely,
N. Jerin Arifa
Project Speak Out Manager
New York Asian Women's Center (NYAWC)

Man’s Arc of Domestic Abuse Led to Death of an Officer

By LIZ ROBBINS

Published: March 14, 2011

An excerpt: ...

There were punches to the head, slams into a wall and threats of killing. Other times, there was simply a menacing presence outside a window.

These were only some of the acts that at least two women ascribed to George Villanueva and reported to the police over the last 12 years.   Mr. Villanueva, 42, of Brooklyn, who the police said had a long history of domestic violence, had been arrested 30 times in the last two decades. 

...On Monday, Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, said in a statement that he questioned a system “that allows a vile and violent career criminal with scores of arrests for violent offenses to continue to walk our neighborhoods.”

...

$50 logo contest for Project Speak Out

Are you good with graphics?   Or know someone else who is?  Win $50 by designing our logo!   We want a logo to use on all our outreach materials for Project Speak Out.  We are hoping it will be something simple, so we would be able to draw it by hand, also.  Send an email with the jpeg of the logo to jarifa at nyawc.org.  Thanks!


To give you an idea, here are the logos of the four partner agencies, but the Project Speak Out logo does not have to have anything in common with the four logos below.

In Solidarity,
N. Jerin Arifa
Project Speak Out Manager
New York Asian Women's Center
Facebook Page: ProjectSpeakOut 
Twitter: @ProjectSpeakOut

Help Us Translate Project Speak Out in Asian Languages

One of the main goals of Project Speak Out is to be culturally sensitive and language accessible to all Asian Americans. You can help!  Help us Translate "Project Speak Out" in Asian Languages.  Here is a very partial list of  languages we need:  

1. Bengali
2. Cantonese
3. Gujarati
4. Hindi
5. Japanese
6. Korean
7. Sinhala
8. Malayalam
9. Nepali
10. Sylheti
11. Punjabi
12. Tamil
13. Thai
14. Urdu
15. Vietnamese
16. Mandarin
17. etc..

Please comment on this post with your translation or email us at jarifa at nyawc.org  Thanks!


In Solidarity,
N. Jerin Arifa
Project Speak Out Manager
New York Asian Women's Center
Facebook Page: ProjectSpeakOut 
Twitter: @ProjectSpeakOut

Celebrating Women, Breaking Silences, Speaking Out

Today is a remarkable day in the lives of women worldwide.  March 8, 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.  It is a time of celebration, and reflection of the long way women have come and  how much we have accomplished.

As I reflect on the challenges and the accomplishments, the one thing I realize is that it is our commitment to work together that brought us this far. Like Audre Lorde once said, "Without community, there is no liberation."

In honor of our collective sense of community, I find that there is no better day than today to bring attention to a very important project initiated by four community organizations dedicated to ending violence against women:  PROJECT SPEAK OUT.

Project Speak Out is a concerted effort by four Asian American anti-violence community agencies to change individual and community attitudes and behaviors toward intimate partner violence/domestic violence in New York City’s Asian American community.

Secrecy and silence and traditional ways of thinking have reigned too long to enable and perpetuate violence.

The four agencies listed below will pool their knowledge and experience working with their constituencies to debunk the culture of silence and to unveil the secrecy of domestic violence.

Here are the four Project Speak Out Partner Agencies

New York Asian Women's Center 


Sakhi for South Asian Women

Korean American Family Services Center 


Garden of Hope

What will be done

Project Speak Out will challenge cultural prohibitions by 

1) increasing awareness of the problem of domestic violence and recalibrate social norms making violence more unacceptable

2) confronting the social conditions and community structures that contribute to violence 

3) building networks of community leaders that can continue the transformative work of eliminating violence against women.

Project Speak Out’s ultimate goal is to increase the awareness and change attitudes around domestic violence in the Asian American communities in Queens, one community member and group at a time.

How it will be done 

The 4 partners will organize a grass roots, person-to-person approach to community education and outreach. 

We will engage groups and individuals in a culturally specific manner with goals of educating, fostering attitudinal change about intimate partner violence and engaging them in a community-wide movement to stop domestic violence. 

We will recruit and train 200 volunteers to go into Asian neighborhoods and meet with the leadership and members of religious organizations; service clubs; community leaders; Asian ethnic affinity groups; Parent-Teacher Associations; and, legal, health, and human service organizations. Project Speak Out will hold 4 study groups and 2 rallies in specific ethnic communities. 

We will establish 4 action groups – particularly organizing an “Asian American Men Against Violence” group. Collectively the 4 partners will extensively engage 1,600 individuals/groups. 

You, me and all of us together form our community. This initiative is not possible without you. If you are interested in participating in Project Speak Out, being trained to go and speak in your own communities, please use this blog as your forum.

I am one of four others who will keep you informed about all Project Speak Out activities. Please feel free to reach out to all of us. 

Warmly,

Sethu Nair
Project Speak Out Team