National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (also known as NAPAWF) is a community-based non-profit organization based in Chicago and founded in 1996. They have offices in Atlanta and Washington, DC, as well as 15 chapters across the country. It is an organization that focuses on empowering AAPI women and girls to participate in critical decisions that affect their lives, families, and communities. NAPAWF uses a reproductive justice framework to motivate and push AAPI women to be involved in driving systemic change and policy in the United States.
History
The idea for the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum started at the 1995 United Nations Fourth
World Conference on Women in Beijing by Asian and Pacific Islander American female activists who met at the non-governmental organization (NGO) forums.
A year later, in September 1996, 157 women became the founding sisters of NAPAWF at a gathering in Los Angeles.
The founding sisters identified six issue areas to serve as the platform and foundation for NAPAWF's work:
# Civil Rights
# Economic Justice
# Educational Access
# Ending Violence Against Women
# Health
# Immigrant and Refugee Rights
The organization's historical records are kept as part of the
Sophia Smith Collection
The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College is an internationally recognized repository of manuscripts, photographs, periodicals and other primary sources in women's history.
General
One of the largest recognized repositories of manuscripts, ar ...
at Smith College in Massachusetts since 2008.
Chapters
There are currently eight local chapters across the country including: Arizona; Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New York; St. Cloud, Minnesota; Texas; and Washington, DC.
Notable Founding Members
Some notable founding members include:
*
Helen Zia
Helen Zia is a Chinese-American journalist and activist for Asian American and LGBTQ rights. She is considered a key figure in the Asian American movement.
Life and career
Early childhood and education
Zia was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1952 ...
*
Sora Park Tanjasiri
* Christina M. Regalado
* Dawn-Thanh Nguyen
* Aileen Almeria Louie
* Lisa Hasegawa
*
Gail Chang Bohr
*
Kiran Ahuja
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.napawf.org/
* https://twitter.com/NAPAWF
Asian-American organizations
Asian-American women's organizations
Women's political advocacy groups in the United States
History of women in Illinois