Courtesy of Gao Huirou. Community events organized by the Asian American Domestic Violence Task Force
The 16 Days Against Gender-Based Violence is an international civil society-led campaign that begins with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November and ends with Human Rights Day on 10 December, drawing attention to the fact that violence against women is the most pervasive human rights violation worldwide. During this year's "16 Days of Action", UN News interviewed the Asian American Anti-Domestic Violence Task Force, a civil society organization in the United States. Please listen to the report of special correspondent Du Jia.
The Asian American Domestic Violence Task Force (ATASK) is based in Boston, USA, providing help to victims of domestic violence in the local Asian community, preventing domestic violence in Asian American families and communities, and giving victims hope.
Joyce Kao is a social worker by profession who manages shelters and drives advocacy at the Asian American Domestic Violence Task Force. In an interview with UN News, Gao Huirou first emphasized that it is very important for victims of domestic violence to provide culturally and linguistically specific services.
Gao Huirou: "For new immigrants, there is a lot of pressure in itself. The first thing they have to face is a language barrier. In other words, when a new Asian immigrant encounters domestic violence, if she cannot find someone who can connect with her language, communicate, and understand the culture, they will often have a lot of concerns about reporting the matter or asking for help. They even say that they have no idea that they can ask for help, or what kind of help is available to them.
The second problem is that your social support network is decreasing, decreasing. When you are in your home country, you may have family and friends around you, and you may have someone to turn to when you are being treated unfairly or abused. Even if it's not asking for help, if you call someone to chat or meet, and spit out bitterness with someone, these people actually have it. When you immigrate, you can't move all of your network to where you live now. Therefore, the reduction of the social support system will also affect them, and the feeling of being isolated and unable to turn to help will also increase. ”
Asian American Anti-Domestic Violence Task Force
Since its establishment in 1992, the Asian American Domestic Violence Task Force has provided services in nearly 20 Asian languages and has a deep understanding of the Asian community's cultural background to support victims.
Gao Huirou: "The most common situation is that many of the victims may have come here with trauma from their home country. This trauma is not only the violence inflicted on them by the perpetrator, but it may also be that they have also sought help when they were living in their home country, but the experience after seeking help is bad and negative. So when they first started working with us, sometimes there was a lot of vigilance, or a lot of helplessness. They will think: What's the use of telling you? What can't you do to help me? Or rather, what is there to turn to? That's how a person's life lives.
We also often hear statements that this matter is a disgrace to the family. It's not just your significant other, but you're also making your little one look up in front of people. In fact, we often hear such a statement. There is a common thread in many of our cultures, and in the minds of many elders, domestic violence is very common and normal. Which couple doesn't fight, or which gentleman occasionally gets angry and can't control it, and won't beat someone? So if you rationalize and normalize this matter, it will make the victim's request for help seem ridiculous. Because if this thing is normal, if everyone else can tolerate it, why can't you? In fact, in the process of service, we are dealing with such concepts and ideas many times. ”
In addition to providing emergency shelter and legal support for victims of domestic violence, a large part of the work of the Asian Anti-Domestic Violence Task Force is to educate the community, promote knowledge, disseminate information, and empower victims through various channels.
Gao Huirou: "The act of domestic violence itself is a relationship of power and control, that is, I use this kind of violence to control you, so that you have to listen to me." This is an asymmetry of power. The spread of knowledge can tilt this power asymmetry back a little, and the more relevant knowledge you have, the more power you have to protect yourself.
In addition, many newcomers do not know where they can seek help, and they are not sure what they can get for help. So we're doing what is called community outreach. We participate in different forms of community activities, large and small. We also try to disseminate information through different community centers, and we also have close ties with several organizations that primarily serve newcomers, and will go to their meetings or events to introduce our services.
A victim of domestic violence may have concerns about domestic violence, but when they find other living resources, they may have fewer obstacles, such as how to apply for government housing and childcare services, which are easier for them to ask. What we can do is put our information in a community center like this, and basically translate our information into the eight more common Asian languages.
We've seen a change in the way different people in the community receive messages over the past 30 years. From word of mouth in the past, to some newspapers in different languages, to later electronic newspapers, to now more direct social networks. We have also been learning Xi and following up to try to convey these messages in the best and most efficient way. ”
Courtesy of Gao Huirou
Domestic violence has skyrocketed around the world during the pandemic, when many people lost their income almost overnight, coupled with psychological stress and the interpersonal alienation caused by quarantine measures.
Gao Huirou pointed out that the epidemic has brought challenges to the work of the Asian American Anti-Domestic Violence Task Force, but also provided opportunities.
Gao Huirou: "During that time, a lot of people's jobs were in turmoil, especially those who were blue-collar workers or those in the service industry. Their income has either disappeared altogether or has been reduced to very little extent. Some people can go to work at work, but because their children's school is no longer available, you have to stay at home and be forced to leave your job. The impact of the economy can also cause a lot of sudden tension, stress and conflict in a family.
In the first year, it was noticeable that we had a lot fewer calls for help in the first few months, and then it started to surge after a few months. Later, when we learned about the cases, we found that one thing in common was in the early stage of the epidemic, because of the lockdown, most people had to go back to work at home, or lost their jobs and had to stay at home. So the victim could have had a space to ask for help, but now that space is gone, because the perpetrator may be nearby at any time. Even after they ask for help, it becomes very challenging for us to keep in touch with them, because they may only have this for a short time a week, and talk to us while they go out to buy groceries. It's a change that we're seeing obviously.
However, when the new crown epidemic happened, it also opened up another possibility, which is online services. I think this is a new possibility, and it also creates a lot of service opportunities and makes our service capabilities more flexible. So I think it's a positive change. ”
Courtesy of Gao Huirou
Donations received by the Asian American Domestic Violence Task Force Emergency Shelter.
The Asian American Domestic Violence Task Force uses contemporary information tools to bridge language and cultural gaps in the Asian community and help victims and survivors of domestic violence and abuse rebuild their lives. Gao hopes to see more support from the government and society at large for the Asian community.
Gao Huirou: "The biggest challenge at work is the lack of resources. We certainly hope that every victim will have access to the resources she deserves to move on to the next step in her life. However, we see that many social support networks are still lacking. For example, the number of government housing places is very small, and it takes a long time to wait in a row, so the victim will soon have to face whether she has no way to afford the high market price outside to rent a house, or maybe when she gets government subsidies, these amounts are often unable to support them to live a quality life. Or maybe they may need some mental health services, and counseling for specific Asian languages is very, very scarce, and the waiting list is basically very long. This disruption of resources is the biggest challenge we face when serving. ”
Gao Huirou, a social worker with the Asian Anti-Domestic Violence Task Force, was interviewed by Du Jia, a special correspondent for UN News.