Congratulations to our Lotus & Rice Fund Recipients
We’re excited to announce API Civic Engagement (ACE) Collaborative, SEAC Village, AYPAL, Asian Americans United (AAU), Arab American Action Network (AAAN), and Empowering Marginalized Asian Communities (EMAC) as the recipients of our Lotus & Rice Fund!
Our Lotus and Rice Fund allows us to regrant $50,000 a year for three years to five GAR member organizations. We hope that this funding allows your organization to sustain your local organizing of working-class, Asian communities. We know that to effectively organize long-term people power and to defend our historic victories, we need the funding to build and sustain resilient local organizations with a ground strategy, political education, leadership development, in-language narrative influence, and direct action campaigns to improve conditions for the working class.
Why Lotus and Rice, you ask? When planted in rice patties, lotus promotes and exponentially grows rice by improving soil quality and promoting a more sustainable farming system. That’s GAR’s role in building the movement. We hope that with this funding to organizing working-class membership bases, our member organizations will be able to accelerate learning and increase the skillsets of our membership to more effectively organize.
Here’s what our members plan on doing with the Lotus & Rice Fund:
ACE will be expanding their work to organize gig economy drivers to continue to organize for pro-driver and gig economy workers legislation in Virginia
SEAC Village will use the funds to support Southeast Asian youth organizing against deportations and Black and Asian movement building, as well as to counter Right-wing forces through rigorous political education and mutual aid work
AYPAL will be focusing on base building for advancing youth voter engagement organizing and lowering voter age to 16 in Oakland, California.
AAU will be expanding their work to organize youth and adults for the No Arena in Chinatown campaign
AAAN will be organizing AMEMSA, Black, and Latine youth on a campaign to end use of SARs (Suspicious Activity Reports) in Chicago neighborhoods
EMAC will use the funds to support their anti-deportation organizing, particularly by doing base building and leadership development work with of formerly incarcerated Southeast Asians