Anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents have increased at an alarming rate in the last few years. According to Stop AAPI Hate, there has been an over 150% increase in Asian hate crime and bias incidents since March of 2020, with approximately 4,000 incidents reported nationwide and 68% of those reported against women. Filipinos ranked third among hate incidents reported. More victims of hate crimes from the Filipino community have been seeking immediate needs for health, loss of income, legal services, and damages and support in navigating how to access government services and resources.
Over the years the Filipino Migrant Center has assisted hundreds of community members and provided services and resources for a variety of issues, including most recently survivors of anti-Asian hate crimes. Some have been survivors of human trafficking or domestic violence and sought help to immediately leave dangerous situations. Urgent needs for legal and health services, housing, and food are common. Together with community organizations such as the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), emergency grassroots fundraising and a call out for in-kind donations were often done to address these immediate needs.
As the need for services and resources has grown, now more than ever it is necessary to build a strong Emergency Services Fund for the Filipino community to meet this increasing demand. With this fund, community members seeking resources can apply to access these funds for emergency needs through the Filipino Migrant Center for needs such as:
- Accessing health services, including mental health
- Emergency shelter
- Transportation to court or medical appointments
- Food, clothing, or other emergency needs
Grassroots fundraising efforts have proven to be the quickest and most effective way to gather resources together and find services for community members in need of immediate help. This is why we are appealing to the community to help us grow the Emergency Services Fund for the Filipino community in Southern California for years to come so low-income immigrants do not have to face this burden alone.
This fundraiser is hosted by NAFCON Southern California in partnership with the Filipino Migrant Center.
