These AAPI Groups Are Crowdfunding Safety in Face of Government Inaction
“We went from complete invisibility to hypervisibility,” one organizer said. “Now we’re wondering: How much time do we have in the spotlight, and what do we do with this time?”
By Claire Wang | NBC News •
Published May 7, 2021
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
On a chilly morning in mid-April, scores of Asian elders lined up outside a senior center in Flushing in Queens, New York, to pick up free alarms that they can clip onto their wrists. Within 20 minutes, all 200 alarms had been scooped up.
In the past two weeks, the nonprofit Asians in America has raised more than $13,000 online to supply 3,500 personal safety alarms to seniors in the city. Organizers work with the social services group Chinese-American Planning Council to distribute them at senior centers it operates, as well as local grocery stores and businesses that elders frequent.