Thank you to our April Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

April’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic, held on Wednesday, April 10 at 33 Bowery Street in Confucius Plaza, brought out 20 lawyers and 8 interpreters who volunteered their time to help 32 clients.

At this month’s clinic, we also presented videos created in partnership with AARP to prevent immigration fraud. In the videos, former Immigration Law Committee co-chairs Susan Akina and Amanda Bernardo provided tips and advice on how to avoid being a victim of immigration scams. Scammers pretend to provide quality legal advice, help with paperwork, or other tasks involved in the immigration process. The scammer usually asks for an upfront fee, takes the money, and disappears immediately. Or worse, they provide ineffective or even harmful representation by filing the wrong paperwork, using fraudulent measures, or misrepresenting facts. Susan and Amanda stressed how important it is to only work with qualified immigration lawyers.

To see Susan’s and Amanda’s videos, click on the following links:

https://blog.aabany.org/2019/02/22/preventing-immigration-fraud-in-the-chinese-community/

https://blog.aabany.org/2019/02/22/preventing-immigration-fraud-in-the-filipino-community/

We are asking every member to actively support AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic by making donations that are vital to its continuing operation. In a few short years, with the tireless and generous assistance of our volunteers, we have helped hundreds of low-income clients with free legal advice and referrals to high-quality, culturally sensitive, and linguistically competent legal services. Together we have helped expand access to justice for underserved Asian American New Yorkers.

If you know family members, friends, or businesses, such as your firm, who would like to support the Clinic, please help us connect with them by contacting Karen Yau at karen.yau@aabany.org.

Or please urge them to make a donation directly. They can visit the website of Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate: https://www.asianamericanlawfund.org/donate/ AALFNY is accepting charitable donations on the Clinic’s behalf and can issue any donor a tax receipt. Any contribution, large or small, would help. Please be sure to indicate in the memo field that the donation is intended for the Pro Bono Clinic.

Thank you to all of the April Pro Bono Clinic Volunteers!

Lawyers:

Kathy Yung
Beatrice Leong
Angela Wu
Gloria Tsui-Yip
Mayumi Cindy Iijima
Zhixian Liu
Anna Jinhua Wang
Eun Hye (Grace) Lee
Xianxiao Li (Emily)
Amanda Bernardo
Samantha Sumilang
Kevin Hsi
Barbara Hayes
Christopher Chin
Sae-Eun Ahn
Kwok Kei Ng
Pauline Yeung-Ha
Ming Chu Lee
Karen Kithan Yau
Asako Aiba

Interpreters:

Alva Lin
Justina Chen
Emily Arakawa
Derek Ting-Che Tai
Weiling Huang
Jessica Wang
Satoshi Kurita
Ruth Poon

Special thanks to Johnny Thach and Kwan Shun Jason Cheung for coordinating the clinic, and the Pro Bono and Community Service Committee Co-Chairs Karen Kithan Yau, Pauline Yeung-Ha, Judy Lee and Asako Aiba for their leadership.

If you are interested in volunteering at next month’s Pro Bono Clinic on May 8, please contact Asako Aiba at asako.aiba@aabany.org. AABANY’s Monthly Pro Bono Clinic occurs every second Wednesday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Preventing Immigration Fraud in the Filipino Community

Older Filipino Americans are particularly vulnerable as targets of certain fraud. According to AARP’s “Facing Fraud or Saving Face? A Survey of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders 50 Years and Older on Fraud and Scams” (www.aarp.org/AAPIfraudsurvey), many con artists use immigration scams to falsely promise cheap, quick, or easy paths to work permits and green cards.

Scammers pretend to provide quality legal advice, help with paperwork, or other tasks involved in the immigration process. The scammer usually asks for an upfront fee, takes the money, and disappears immediately. Or worse, they provide ineffective or even harmful representation by filing the wrong paperwork, using fraudulent measures, or misrepresenting facts. The American Bar Association believes immigration fraud is underreported because many victims are often ashamed to report it to authorities or are afraid it will affect their immigration status.

Amanda Bernardo, Co-Chair of AABANY’s Immigration Committee, provides tips and advice on how to avoid being a victim of immigration fraud. She is working with AARP to help the Filipino community and notes “The immigration process can be confusing and intimidating, especially for Filipinos and Asian immigrants who face language barriers.”

Daphne Kwok, AARP Vice President of Multicultural Leadership, Asian American and Pacific Islander Audience Strategy says “Con artists often target immigrant communities because they are particularly vulnerable, but knowing how they work can help you spot and avoid scams.”

To learn more about Amanda Bernardo and to watch her video, click here.

Preventing Immigration Fraud in the Chinese Community

AABANY has partnered with AARP to prevent immigration fraud in the Chinese community.

Older Asian American and Pacific Islanders are particularly vulnerable as targets of certain fraud. According to AARP’s “Facing Fraud or Saving Face? A Survey of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders 50 Years and Older on Fraud and Scams” (aarp.org/AAPIfraudsurvey), many con artists use immigration scams to falsely promise cheap, quick, or easy paths to work permits and green cards.

Susan Akina, Co-Chair of AABANY’s Immigration Committee, provides tips and advice on how to avoid being a victim of immigration fraud. She is working with AARP to help the Chinese community and says “Don’t be afraid to ask questions and if you ever feel uncomfortable, you don’t have to proceed with the attorney or the case. Sometimes the wrong type of help can be more problematic in the long run.”

Daphne Kwok, AARP Vice President of Multicultural Leadership, Asian American and Pacific Islander Audience Strategy says “Con artists often target immigrant communities because they are particularly vulnerable, but knowing how they work can help you spot and avoid scams.”

To learn more about Susan Akina and to watch her video, click here.

AARP Campaign for Grandparents Day of NextDayBetter

National Grandparents Day is just around the corner – September 10th, 2017 to be exact!

Are you a parent to an AAPI child?

Would you be interested in participating in a video montage and story, celebrating the sacrifice and accomplishments of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) grandparents?

We just need cute video footage of your child interacting with their API grandma and grandpa and more.

In partnership with AARP, we are creating a video entitled “Dear Grandparents” – a storytelling project focused on celebrating the immigrant stories of AAPI Grandparents. For this video, we are crowdsourcing cute footage moments of grandchildren, parent, and grandparent interacting with one another. Simply put, “Dear Grandparents” is a message of love and gratitude for our Asian Immigrant parent/grandparents.

What do we need?

  • Footage when your child first meets their grandparents.
  • Food! Teaching kids to use chopsticks or how to dip lumpia, slurping noodles, etc.
  • Grandparents with your child! Playing, hugging, holding, etc.
  • Families together – selfies/mirror shots of you and your children are welcome.
  • Kids walking, running, eating – just being kids.
  • Solo footage of kids smiling, crying, making funny faces.

How can you participate?

  • Send an email to curious@nextdaybetter.com to express your interest in participating. We will follow up with instructions on how to participate.
  • Due Date: All footage is due on August 2nd.

About our Social Impact Company: NextDayBetter is a storytelling media platform for diaspora communities. Through our global event series and original digital storytelling, we celebrate the stories of multicultural immigrants across the globe and call them to action. Through storytelling, we build empowered communities that solve today’s greatest challenges. Some of our storytelling partners include MailChimp, Doctors Without Borders and AARP.
Impact Case Study: Our campaign with Doctors Without Borders inspired the Filipino diaspora to ask pharma to reduce the price of pneumonia vaccination, resulting in over 400,000 petitions signed, 110 Filipino organizations participating, and a verbal commitment by Pfizer and GSK to drop the price of pneumonia vaccination in humanitarian settings. Watch our video here.

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 For Immediate Release

Asian Pacific American Women Leaders Hold Majority of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus

 “A Conversation with AAPI Women of the 113th Congress” Featuring

 Representatives Tulsi Gabbard & Grace Meng

 Sponsored by AARP

WASHINGTON— The 113th Congress is historic with 97 representatives from multicultural communities and 100 female members. In particular, for Asian American and Pacific Islander women, this is the first time the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus is composed of a majority of women. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) an Iraq War veteran, is the first Hindu elected to Congress. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) is the first Asian American to represent the state of New York.

Reps. Gabbard and Meng shared their experiences as new members of Congress on a panel discussion titled “A Conversation with AAPI Women of the 113th Congress” on Wednesday, March 13 at 6 p.m. Organized by the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) and sponsored by AARP, Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA.), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and Board Member of APAICS opened the discussion and Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president of AARP’s State and National Group moderated the panel. 

A lively and engaging conversation took place as Reps. Gabbard and Meng discussed their experiences of rising to leadership roles and spoke on broad range of issues affecting the 50+ from work-life balance to financial security.

“AARP is honored to join Congresswoman Chu and APAICS in hosting this conversation that recognizes the remarkable journey, accomplishments and contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islander Women,” said Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez, AARP’s Executive Vice President for Multicultural Markets & Engagement.  “We congratulate Reps. Gabbard and Meng on their recent victories, which increases representation of women from multicultural and multilingual communities, and we look forward to working with them and their colleagues on issues affecting multicultural communities in the coming months.”

“As we celebrate Women’s History Month, it’s important to acknowledge the tremendous progress that women have made,” said Judy Chu. “The 113th Congress is the most diverse in history, with more women and people of color than ever before. I want to thank APAICS and AARP for hosting such a great event to hear from Congresswomen Grace Meng and Tulsi Gabbard, two pioneers in the Asian Pacific American community who serve as role models for young women everywhere.” 

AARP.ORG Debuts Webpage for APAs 50 Years Old and Over

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For Immediate Release

 

AARP.ORG DEBUTS FIRST EVER WEB PAGE FOR

ASIAN AMERICANS 50+ DURING LUNAR NEW YEAR

Washington, D.C. (February 14, 2013) –This February, AARP.org celebrates Lunar New Year by launching its first Asian Community web page, www.aarp.org/asiancommunity.   Tailored to engage the 50+ Asian audience, the web page will include news and information relevant to the Asian American community on topics including caregiving, financial security, health, retirement, and social security among others.  It also includes AARP Asian member stories, Asian events from the state, local and national offices, videos highlighting Asian AARP members and AARP Asian executives that are in English but also providing subtitled versions in Chinese and Korean along with a financial education column from Chinese American AARP executive, Jean Setzfand! .  

“Our goal in creating this page is to be a trusted and user-friendly resource for 50+ Americans of Asian Pacific descent, the fastest growing population in America,” said Lorraine Cortes Vazquez, Executive Vice President for Multicultural Markets and Engagement at AARP.  “By offering content that is relevant, we encourage the community to participate in the national conversation on how best to serve the Asian community with issues important to our members and their families to help them get more out of life as they age.”

The video “AARP—Helping Asian Families Get More Out of Life” will be one of the links available through the new web page.  Subtitled in both Chinese and Korean, the video features AARP Asian executives as well as testimonials from influential Asian community leaders who discuss the importance of being informed about issues that affect Asians 50 and older.

To become a member of AARP and to learn more about AARP’s Asian initiative and programs, please visit www.aarp.org/asiancommunity.

About AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of more than 37 million, that helps people turn their goals and dreams into real possibilities, strengthens communities and fights for the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare, employment security and retirement planning. We advocate for consumers in the marketplace by selecting products and services of high quality and value to carry the AARP name as well as help our members obtain discounts on a wide range of products, travel, and services.  A trusted source for lifestyle tips, news and educational information, AARP produces AARP The Magazine, the world’s largest circulation magazine; AARP Bulletin; www. aarp.org; AARP TV & Radio; AARP Books; and AARP VIVA, a bilingual news source.  AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates.  The AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that ! provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. AARP has staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Learn more at www.aarp.org

 

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Grace Niwa

Niwa Public Relations

617-299-9848

grace@niwapr.com

Kristin S. Palmer

AARP Media Relations

202-434-2560

kpalmer@aarp.org