For 25 years, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum fights for AAPI women and girls

Founded in 1996, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum builds power with Asian Americans and Pacific Islander women and girls to influence critical decisions that affect our lives, our families and our communities. Using a reproductive justice framework, the organization elevates AAPI women and girls to impact policy and drive systemic change in the United States.

This year, NAPAWF is celebrating its 25th anniversary, which speaks volumes to the two and a half decades of sustained work fighting for AAPI women to be seen and heard, but at the same time, we’re seeing one of the most significant surges in harassment and violence against AAPI communities in 25 years.

Yet, NAPAWF continues to fight the specific, intersectional challenges AAPI women and girls face: the sexual violence, sexism, and racism that are intertwined for AAPI women.NAPAWF has been front and center as hatred and violence against AAPI women has risen. Here’s some of the critical work they’ve accomplished recently:

• The organization has been in the media, making clear that the horrific Atlanta spa shootings were not an isolated incident, but an extreme manifestation of the racist, sexist violence that AAPI women experience regularly.
• They’ve collected and shared research demonstrating with data what the group has been saying for years: that AAPI women and girls are too often not seen and heard for the human beings we are, but are rather stereotyped, fetishized, and portrayed as the perpetual foreigner.
• NAPAWF has been working toward a more just future, where AAPI women are not just free from the threat of violence but truly liberated and living full, autonomous lives.
• And they’ve been busy with several partner organizations setting an agenda for their movement and laying out for officials the top priorities for AAPI women.

Last month, NAPAWF celebrated the reintroduction in both houses of Congress of the HEAL for Immigrant Families Act, which addresses economic security and healthcare access, two of the issues cited most frequently by those polled by NAPAWF. NAPAWF members nationwide have been mobilizing their communities and engaging their representatives on this bill, which would remedy economic injustice and inequities in healthcare access for immigrants.

This month, you can vote to help CREDO distribute a portion of our monthly grant to NAPAWF and help them further invest in the AAPI women leaders of tomorrow. Visit CREDODonations.com this July to cast your vote.