Nonprofit helps in coronavirus crisis + Sacramento TV station reaches communities: Your AAPI newsletter
It is Friday, May 1, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s AAPI weekly newsletter.
Here’s a recap on the stories I recently covered and issues I’m following:
A nonprofit organization is helping the elderly and people with underlying health conditions in Sacramento and elsewhere get groceries and services.
SEVA Selfless Service has been stepping up to aid those who are worried about going out and being exposed to the coronavirus. Since March, around two dozen volunteers, all of them with full-time jobs, have been delivering groceries to around 10 senior citizens per day in Sacramento and Yuba City.
With yearly donations raised entirely from the community, the volunteers will pick up groceries and sometimes prescriptions ordered by the seniors, then drop off the items at their doors without making contact.
Noticing a need for culturally relatable messages regarding public health information on the coronavirus, a local television channel is compiling information on its website and donating airtime to videos and translated materials on public service announcements and responses on COVID-19.
Crossings TV was founded in 2005 to provide programs in several languages in seven Asian concentrated metropolitan areas across the U.S., including Sacramento. News reports and entertainment programs are available in several Asian languages, including Hmong, Japanese and Mandarin.
Frank Washington, CEO and founder of Crossings TV, said he recognized a virtual absence of a locally oriented information and entertainment channel for Asian communities, which constitutes 13.1 percent of the population in the Sacramento, Roseville and Folsom metro area as of 2017, according to AAPI Data.
In other news
Over 30 percent of Americans have witnessed COVID-19 bias against Asians, poll says [NBC News]
Coronavirus: Asian Americans across Bay Area, U.S. report 1,500 racist incidents in a month [San Francisco Chronicle]
From guns to GoPros, Asian Americans seek to deter attacks [The Associated Press]
Vietnamese community to hold first virtual commemoration of “Fall of Saigon” due to coronavirus [Orange County Register]
Decades after resettlement, Cambodian refugees vulnerable to prison-to-deportation pipeline [NBC News]
Coronavirus: Bay Area restaurants learning a lesson on how to reopen from Hong Kong [ABC7 (San Francisco)]
How diversity drives “Stargirl” actress Joy Osmanski: Interview [Forbes]
Koreatown’s old guard restaurants and newcomers alike struggle to survive during pandemic [Eater LA]
Are you working on the front lines in some way to help with the containment of the coronavirus, or are contributing to the health and well-being of our community? Please reach out to me at tyu@sacbee.com. I’d love to do a story on you!
Finally, what stories would you like to read about? Please send me your tips and suggestions.
That’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thanks for reading, stay safe and hang in there!
If you value coverage of California’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community, please spread the word about our newsletter and send to a friend. Sign up here to receive this newsletter each week.