Help Support Our Community

It was 47 years ago this month that AAFE’s founders marched on Confucius Plaza to protest discriminatory hiring practices in Manhattan’s Chinatown, creating a powerful movement that has endured for nearly a half century. During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we celebrate this history while also acknowledging that the fight for racial, social and economic justice is far from over. The pandemic exposed society’s devastating inequalities, disproportionately impacting all of our communities of color. The rise in AAPI hate has added to the heartbreak, making recovery from Covid even more difficult. 

The events of the past year have only made us more determined to keep striving for an equitable future. During the pandemic, we mobilized to create a series of free pop-up community markets, offering clothing, household goods and food for anyone who needed help; we worked to connect our most vulnerable community members with government health and social services and eviction prevention counseling; and we rushed approximately $4.5 million in emergency loans to immigrant small businesses. 

We are now working to keep our community safe by dispersing personal safety devices in Chinatown, Flushing, Jackson Heights and beyond; we’re opening a new food pantry in Chinatown; and AAFE is working to establish new housing in both Manhattan and Queens to address the worsening homelessness crisis. 

Every dollar you give is devoted to our community development programs: standing up against racism and xenophobia, delivering financial assistance to imperiled immigrant small businesses, providing food and clothing to those in need and preserving and building affordable housing.  We thank you for your generous support and  commitment to equality for all.