NWNY visits Chinatown for the Asian American festival

Written by Daria Kurdyukova

NWNY volunteers work the stand at the festival, engaging with the community.

On May 15, New Women New Yorkers participated in the 36th Annual Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Festival in Chinatown for the second year in a row. Organized by the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, the theme of the festival was to promote voter registration and to encourage all attendees to vote in the upcoming local elections.

There were six volunteers on hand to help Arielle, founder and director of NWNY, introduce new immigrant women in NYC to the organization and, in particular, to the LEAD program (I recently graduated from the program as did two other volunteers at the festival). Maria, one of NWNY’s Board Directors, brought homemade brownies to help entice people to the NWNY booth.

We provided information and explained the program to people who were interested. Many of those who approached our booth were older and did not speak much English, but all of the volunteers tried to get out of their comfort zone to explain the program using words that they knew. We also met young immigrant women who were interested in participating in the LEAD program.

Many other nonprofit organizations, including Apex for Youth, New York Asian Women’s Center, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, were also represented at the festival.