Blog Post #2: ASIA the Org
On Thursday, I learned what ASIA as an organization does. I was astounded at the sheer number of offices and people that ASIA employs. ASIA has offices that range from ESL classes to economic assistance for new immigrants to a tutoring program and various interpreters. ASIA serves a whole range of communities with their most served communities being Chinese, Nepalese, Burmese, and Congolese immigrants. They also run a health clinic for immigrants whose English might prohibit them from going to regular doctors. In fact, I was able to talk with a few of the leaders of said programs. One of the things that struck me was how much privilege I had to be in my position, even simply as a native English speaker. For many of the people who immigrate to the United States, the services ASIA provides are critical to their survival and quality of life. Yet, even with the number of resources ASIA provides people, their lives are still enormously difficult. With the pandemic, ASIA was forced to close ESL programs and move a lot of their on-the-ground work online. Multiple program leaders that I talked to mentioned the difficulties of teaching and assisting immigrants online. The simple fact was that even though I detested the remote learning period, I was extremely lucky to be at a place like Hawken, which had the resources to keep us in-person for most of the year. I also got to chat with the CEO of ASIA, Elaine Tso. One of the issues she mentioned she had worked on was securing vaccines for a community of people from the Marshall Islands who lived in Central Ohio and worked at a meat processing plant. Due to the fact that the US had tested nuclear bombs on the islands, and the fact that people from the Marshall Islands couldn't access US healthcare, the average life expectancy of that community was around 50. COVID was devastating and ripped through the community causing thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths. Ms. Tso attempted to get a special exemption for the community for vaccines due to the limited life expectancy of the community and the destruction caused by COVID. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to succeed in getting the vaccines. This incident alerted me to the discrimination faced by Asian groups in America as well as the media's tendency to obscure stories. I found it very interesting listening about what ASIA's mission was, and how it attempted to help different communities.
Cody, thank you for providing so many details. You are obviously deeply invested in what you are learning, and your personalized reporting helps others to see and appreciate that learning. Without observing and sharing, none of the rest of us understand the questions, and these issues aren't confronted. Hopefully, Ms. Tso has now been successful with obtaining the vaccines and the cycle of exploitation has at least paused during the pandemic. I appreciate the good work that she was doing. So many benefit from the work of these essential workers, who were required to keep going even under dire circumstances. Keep up the good observation, reporting and work, Cody.
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