Fundraiser to Help Unhoused Korean Seniors and Korean Americans on The Brink in Los Angeles

Please donate via Venmo to @gidrareturns (Camilla Zadi) or paypal Kamilah.zadi AT gmail DOT com

Facebook fundraiser https://www.facebook.com/donate/644891902930922/?fundraiser_source=external_url

Donations to AA4H.org (Asian Americans for Housing) and AA4EJ.org (Asian Americans for Environmental Justice) can be made payable to KIWA (fiscal non-profit sponsor) and mailed to: 1436 West Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles Ca 90007.

My name is Susan Park. I have lived in Los Angeles for over 45 years. I am well known member of the community here with multiple measures of accountability and transparency.

There will be more concerted efforts to help unhoused Asian Americans. I have partners who will start a work team with me. Beyond helping just a few people, we want to have a 24 hour hotline, donation and distribution location, our own shelters and affordable housing. We want to help other Asian American groups and other groups of Americans to help our own. All of us or none of us. We want to create social movements. It takes a village.

Unhoused Asian Americans have different challenges. Language and cultural barriers are often impossible to overcome. Unhoused people have strong cultural preferences for food just like housed people do. Becoming unhoused does not make folx lose qualities and desires that all human beings have. It is vital to create Asian American specific groups to meet the unique challenges of our unhoused community members.

I feel that it is very important to serve people with their dignity in mind. We care and share with the person in mind. We are here to serve them, not ourselves.

I also do a lot of coalition building in South Central Los Angles. I started a Black Asian Coalition and Black Latinx Coalition. I care about BIPOC. All of us, or none of us.

Sometimes I work through non-profits, sometimes I work with community partners. The non-profit industrial complex is a problem. Of course, there are good non-profits. But there are also many that exist to perpetuate the problems they are supposed to alleviate. As long as the problem persists, the non-profit office exists.

There are also some limitations with faith based non-profits helping those in need. Sometimes there are religious leaders who believe that people should suffer because it’s God’s will. Faith helps some people heal and faith can be complementary to some people in their path to healing. But mental health issues and grinding poverty can’t be prayed away. We also understand that god and religion are important to a lot of people and we respect that.

We firmly believe in solidarity. So we work with various organizations including religious ones whenever we can. We also believe that radical community building is possible when folx step up to the plate on their own and start building community coalitions.

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