News and Events

January is Human Trafficking Prevention Month

On December 31, 2021, the White House issued a proclamation declaring January 2022 as National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. The proclamation highlights the importance of the federal government approach in the fight against human trafficking, and refers to the recently released National Plan to Combat Human Trafficking. The proclamation acknowledges how human trafficking disproportionately impacts communities that have been historically underserved and excluded, including 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, communities of color, women and girls, and individuals migrating to the United States. The Administration also states that anti-trafficking efforts must always be connected to our broader efforts to advance equity and justice across our society. Here is the link to the proclamation.

 Read full proclamation

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2021 Yearly Highlights

2021 Yearly Highlights

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As 2021 comes to a close, we all have so much on our minds. The pandemic, which has taken a life of its own, has affected our communities, survivors and loved ones, continues to be our reality. Our focus on race equity is still much needed and our desire for inclusive actions and conversations is our long standing mission. Also, hearing that our front line team members, advocates, professionals and community based organizations are exhausted push us to work harder for them. Finally, continuing to make an impact and lending a voice to our AAPI community and our successes and challenges is where we need to be and will be as we enter 2022.

As we respond to these immense tasks, the one thing that remains true is API-GBV’s resolute commitment to our community and gender based violence advocacy. We pledge that 2022 will bring creative responses, funding, training, and resources to our marginalized community from API-GBV. We are looking to go deeper and be more focused with our support and will continue to listen to our community and their vast and diverse needs.

Thank you for your support in 2021 and we look forward to our continued advocacy together for the AAPI community. As our year closes, please support API-GBV with a donation so that we can tackle 2022 with strength and innovation.

From my heart to yours, I wish you all a Happy New Year. Here’s to 2022!

Monica Khant
Executive Director

Bridges: A Connect Call for Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders Addressing Gender-Based Violence

Bridges: A Connect Call for Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders Addressing Gender-Based Violence

Next call: December 15, 2021 (9am HST / 12pm PST / 3pm CST / 3pm EST) (1hr)

These bi-monthly community connect calls are intended to be a space for AANHPI advocates, community members, and allies to connect, dialogue, share successes, problem solve, and network. API-GBV staff will be available to moderate and encourage discussion, but this is a space for YOU, as the experts of this work, to share your experiences and to learn from allies across the country.

October’s theme: Reflections on working through the pandemic

In December’s Bridges Connect Call we will reflect back on the past nearly two years of working through a global pandemic. In what ways have your organizations adapted services or advocacy to a socially distant world, and what are ways DV/SA organizations have added COVID-19 services to their repertoire? In your work or personal lives, what are some practices that you have taken up that you plan to carry forward beyond the pandemic? And what are your hopes for this field or this work in 2022?

December’s Bridges Call will be a shorter session, at one hour, and we will make use of breakout rooms. ASL interpretation and live captioning provided.


Other details:

Meetings will be hosted on Zoom, and you are encouraged to join with video and voice to the extent that you are comfortable. These calls will not be recorded, but we may share takeaways, without identifying information, with our staff or community. ASL interpretation and captioning will be provided. Please get in contact with us, or indicate in your RSVP, if you require additional interpretation or accessibility features.

If you cannot make December’s call, but would like to be on the list for future dates, please email sluo@api-gbv.org.

To RSVP, please use the form below, or click here to open it in another window.

AAPI Challenges, Barriers, and Priorities: Share-back of our community listening sessions

AAPI Challenges, Barriers, and Priorities: Share-back of our community listening sessions

Over the past year and a half, API-GBV strove to learn more deeply from our community of front-line advocates, national partners, systems contacts, and allies through a series of listening sessions, assessment, and surveys. During this webinar, staff shared themes and learnings from these sessions with the broader community. This includes barriers faced by survivors from the diverse AAPI community, how COVID has impacted the last year of advocacy, and intersections with experiences of xenophobia and racism. From these learnings are recommendations and priorities for programs, funders, educators, systems, and policymakers.

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by API-GBV

October 21, 2021

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Hiring: Program Manager, Culturally-Specific Services Program

Hiring: Program Manager, Culturally-Specific Services Program

This position has been filled

The Program Manager (PM) will manage and implement training and technical assistance designed for programs serving survivors of dating violence, domestic violence (DV), sexual assault (SA), dating violence and stalking. The Program Manager will work closely with the Director of Programs, our funders the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW), and other national TA providers. This position is preferably Oakland, CA based, however due to the pandemic, all staff are currently working remotely from home.

Download job description for more information, required qualifications, and application instructions

Join Our Team! Program Manager: Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Initiative

Join Our Team! Program Manager: Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Initiative

This position has been filled

The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (API-GBV) is seeking a Program Manager for the Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Initiative (DVHPI), who is a highly motivated self-starter, able to work in a fast-paced environment, and handle a diverse workload.

 

The Program Manager is responsible for overseeing, developing and implementing the objectives and activities of the DVHPI.  Responsibilities include project planning, oversight of any project support staff and consultants, liaising with a national network of subject-matter experts; providing technical assistance and training on models and issues relevant to domestic violence related homicide prevention; advocating on behalf of Asian/API communities at the national and local level; and documenting best practices to prevent homicide.

Reporting to the Senior Program Manager, this position is a full-time (40 hours per week), exempt position, requiring extensive travel. Our main office operations are currently located in Oakland, California with other staff working from San Diego, Atlanta, New Jersey and Seattle.  There are five (5) board members and twelve (12) full-time staff.

The position is preferably Oakland, CA based, however due to the pandemic, all staff are currently working remotely from home. Our ideal start date is June 3, 2021.

Download job description for more information, required qualifications, and application instructions

Past Events

A Conversation with Author Dr. Nusrat Rabbee: War Heroines Speak

A Conversation with Author Dr. Nusrat Rabbee: War Heroines Speak

A conversation with Dr. Nusrat Rabbee, author of War Heroines Speak: The Rape of Bangladeshi Women in 1971 War of Independence. During this dialogue, Dr. Rabbee discussed the use of rape as a weapon of genocide in the war of 1971, and how it impacted not only the women, but also society in post-war Bangladesh. Dr. Rabbee also explored where women’s rights and status are currently in Bangladesh, and what is currently being done to acknowledged gender-based violence in the country. She also discussed how the events of 1971 connect to the movement to end gender-based violence today, across the world and in the United States. 

War Heroines Speak can be purchased from Amazon or your local bookstore

About War Heroines Speak

A book that tells the heroic and sorrowful stories of 7 women survivors who were subjected to rape and torture by Pakistani army during the 1971 Bangladesh war

In 1971, Pakistani army unleashed a bloody, brutal and barbaric genocide of Bengalis in then East Pakistan. Pakistan finally surrendered and East Pakistan was liberated as Bangladesh on 16th December, 1971. The world does not know the extent of the systematic rape and sexual violence on Bengali women and girls that took place during this 9-month war. This book is published in English for international audiences to bring awareness to these war crimes. The book is translated from ‘Ami Birangona Bolchi’ – an original anthology compiled by Dr. Nilima Chowdhury in Bangla in 1994.

No other book captures the true impact of the war in rural and urban Bangladesh – as well these simple stories. In these quiet narratives, the young women and children clearly express: how they went from an idyllic childhood to the horrors of genocide; how they continued to live with painful memories and social exclusion after the war. Very few survivors exist today from this holocaust of 1971. Most died at the hands of Pakistani army. These testimonies establish how Pakistan used systematic and planned rape as a weapon of war – as early as 1971.

Dr. Nusrat Rabbee hopes this translated book will help the world to understand the history behind this genocide and to hold Pakistan accountable for wartime crimes.

 

About the author:

Dr. Nusrat Rabbee is a writer and researcher on the 1971 War History of Bangladesh. She is a political activist and works as a Statistician/Machine Learning researcher in the Life Sciences. She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College, M.A. from Univ of California at Berkeley and a PhD from Harvard University

 

This event is made possible by Grant Number 90EV0430 from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the presenters and do not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Presented by Dr. Nusrat Rabbee
Hosted by API-GBV

April 22, 2021

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Female Genital Cutting/Mutilation: An Under-Recognized Form of GBV in the US, 2021

Female Genital Cutting/Mutilation: An Under-Recognized Form of GBV in the US, 2021

Female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) is a reality for many women and girls across different communities in the United States. Yet, for centuries, FGM/C has remained a hidden tradition. It’s often practiced by women to women, and girls are raised to believe they must remain silent about what they underwent. Silence is an endemic or inherent part of this type of gender violence that can lead to lifelong physical and emotional health consequences. At the core of providing better prevention, protection, health and social support services for women and girls is stronger data, enhanced research, and community engagement. Join Sahiyo, the Asian-Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, and the U.S. End FGM/C Network for an exploration of FGM/C, its connection to gender-based violence, and how COVID-19 has impacted the movement to abandon FGM/C in the US.

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Presented by Sahiyo and the U.S. End FGM/C Network; Hosted  by API-GBV

April 2021

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Webinar for Advocates and Adult Allies! Sexual Harassment & AAPI Teens

Webinar for Advocates and Adult Allies! Sexual Harassment & AAPI Teens

Do you know what signs to look for and what steps to take if a teen or young adult encounters sexual or other harassment in the workplace? At the EEOC, we have seen that young workers at their first jobs can be especially vulnerable to harassment whether due to sex, national origin and other characteristics. Make a difference in the lives of the Asian and Pacific Islander teens and young adults you serve by learning how to recognize and refer cases, and understanding the role you can play to address workplace sexual harassment.

Presented by EEOC San Francisco. Hosted by API-GBV.

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Presented by EEOC, SF. Hosted by API-GBV

March 2021

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API-GBV Statement on Shootings at Atlanta-Area Spas and Crimes against Asian Americans

March 17, 2021

In shock and horror, we mourn the deaths of the eight victims of yesterday’s shootings at Atlanta-area spas. With the families of the victims, we grieve their loss.

Law enforcement in Atlanta have so far declined to deem the incident a hate crime, despite the fact that six out of eight victims were Asian women, the exotification of Asian women in media and sex work, and the shooter’s stated motive to “eliminate his temptations.”

But they are missing the point. The intersection of racism and misogyny has stood out starkly in the exponential violence experienced by the Asian community over the last year. When we locate last night’s incident within the surge of violence against Asian women, it becomes clear that misogyny against Asian women is so embedded into our culture that we do not notice it until it manifests into lethal violence.

And when we consistently allow sweeping generalizations and the model minority myth to dominate the narrative, we obscure the experiences of Asian families struggling with disproportionately high unemployment rates during the pandemic. When we brush incidents like yesterday’s off as isolated events motivated by opportunity, we fail to do justice to the Asian immigrant workers who are terrified to return to work today, and to the Asian elders who are afraid to stroll to the market in their own neighborhoods.

Violence against any community–and the misogyny, racism, and hate that spark it–hurts all of us. We remain heartened by the actions the Biden-Harris administration has taken to condemn racism against AAPI communities to recognize this. We stand in solidarity with our community, allies, and families of the victims to demand a thorough, transparent review of yesterday’s incident; and we call on leadership, policymakers, and law enforcement to listen to AAPI voices, uplift our experiences, and hold our safety and well-being as a priority.

 

3800+ incidents of hate, harassment, or racism have already been reported against Asian and Asian American individuals. Please visit the Stop AAPI Hate page to learn more, or to report an incident.

 

What is Gendered Islamophobia? 2021

What is Gendered Islamophobia? 2021

Building upon a history of shared values and intersecting work, the Partnership to End Gendered Islamophobia brings together HEART, Justice for Muslims Collective and Vigilant Love to build analysis, tools and power to dismantle Gendered Islamophobia. This workshop is specifically tailored towards practitioners in the field of gender-based violence and gender justice. We focus on ways practitioners can better understand how gendered Islamophobia shows up in their work, and ways to respond in holistic ways. The workshop includes a focus on the intersection of gendered Islamophobia, gender-based violence and reproductive justice. The workshop emphasizes the invisibility of state violence in understanding gender-based violence and particularly the implications of the War on Terror and Islamophobia for Muslim survivors of gender-based violence. Moreover, this workshop includes discussions upon intra-community solidarity and what can be done within broader Asian American spaces to address gendered Islamophobia.

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Presented by the Partnership to End Gendered Islamophobia; Hosted  by API-GBV

March 2021

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Download the Community Report from the Partnership to End Gendered Islamophobia

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Announcing Our New Executive Director!

Announcing Our New Executive Director!

To Our Communities, Colleagues and Supporters:

The Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence is pleased to announce that we have hired our next Executive Director, Monica Khant. We were fortunate to have a talented, experienced, and dedicated pool of applicants – which made our selection challenging and rewarding. Monica will start on March 15th, 2021 and you will be able to reach her at mkhant[at]api-gbv[dot]org.

 “We are thrilled that Monica is joining our team. Monica brings tremendous passion, experience and openness from her 15 year history of building and growing with the Georgia Asylum & Immigration Network (GAIN). She brings a strong collaborative and coalition building approach to her work both internally and externally. Our Board and Staff look forward to this coming phase of growth and community collaboration to uplift the voices and experiences of the AAPI communities that are impacted by violence. We are so pleased to bring her leadership skills and expertise to the Institute.” – Debbie Lee, Board Chair

 Monica came to us after 15 years as the Executive Director of GAIN in Atlanta, Georgia. Under her leadership, the organization grew from an all-volunteer organization to a staff of 12, and a $1+ million-dollar budget. She worked closely with the founders, board, donors and staff to ensure the organization’s effectiveness by focusing on alignment, scalability, and deliverables. Monica developed an innovative free legal services model for immigrants with law firms and corporations in Atlanta to provide legal services to victims of crime and persecution. Further, to strengthen GAIN’s work, she developed a strong multiracial coalition-building approach on a grassroots and state level in Georgia and also partnered with local and national organizations to influence policies that affected the immigrants they served. At GAIN, she demonstrated that she was a skillful fundraiser, who worked with government, private and corporate partners, and individual donors to foster involvement and raise awareness, while increasing revenue. In addition to her externally focused work, Monica invested in her staff, providing support, opportunities, and inspiration. The GAIN staff describes her as genuine, empowering, passionate, defiant, pioneering and tenacious.

Monica Khant states,

“It is an honor and privilege to join the Institute, after Chic Dabby’s tremendous legacy and years of dedicated leadership to this work. While representing immigrant clients, I firsthand have benefited from the treasure trove of resources, trainings, advocacy and collaborations that the Institute brings to the national and grassroots communities. The work that the expert team does at the Institute is nothing short of visionary and inspiring. I am grateful for the opportunity to join them as we continue to disrupt gender-based violence in AAPI communities. I am also committed to listening as I bring my passion for engaging and connecting communities nationally and hope to respond even deeper to our community’s needs. I look forward to meeting you as we are in this movement together.”

 

In addition to her leadership at GAIN, Monica was involved with other partnering organizations in Georgia to create and implement the Victim Legal Assistance Network to bring statewide holistic services to victims of crime. She also served as a Board member of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Raksha, which offers support, healing, and advocacy to South Asians and other immigrant survivors of violence. As an experienced trainer and national speaker, she shared her expertise on immigration law, as well as the intersection of immigrant rights, human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault, asylum, social services and economic security. With over two decades of experience in the non-profit legal community, she is also a speaker on leadership in the nonprofit community and has been awarded a prestigious fellowship on women’s leadership with International Women’s Forum. Monica is eager to extend her expertise to impact systemic changes at the local and national levels, strengthen communities, and create a broader understanding to influence culture and lives of AAPI survivors and their families.

We are looking forward to our partnership with Monica and the staff in continuing the Institute’s commitment to address gender-based violence through its leadership, its treasury of resources and collaboration with advocates, practitioners, service providers and community activists. Under her leadership, we are committed to continuing our current relationships and building new ones to better serve our communities. We hope you will extend a warm welcome to her into your networks, organizations, circles and communities.

With appreciation,
Debbie Lee, Leni Marin, Sujata Warrier, Lori Kodama and Linda Phan
On Behalf of the Board and Staff

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