By Lillian Bit, AsAmNews Contributor
“Safe from Hate “ is a campaign initiative started by two lifelong friends Barbara Yau and Gilbert Chan who grew up in Chinatown and attended elementary school together 40 years ago.
One day in March while reports of attacks on Asians were growing during COVID-19, they thought of an idea to arm Asian senior citizens with loud alarm devices which they can use to call for help in case of an attack. The device would give a person time to run away or get help from others nearby.
Yau and Chan generously funded the project themselves. They approached the board members of Confucius Plaza -an apartment complex mainly for low income Asian senior citizens in Manhattan’s Chinatown to collaborate on their idea. Together they provided free alarms and operating instructions to residents 60 years of age and over.
This weekend, Yau and Chan and many volunteers distributed the alarms to over 500 people who are residents of Confucius Plaza and had already pre-registered for the alarms in mid-July.
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A long line about a block long started forming at Confucius Plaza starting at 10 am for the alarms. The process of registration, operation and distribution once started was fairly smooth as volunteers who spoke both Chinese and English taught small groups to learn how to operate the alarm and light.
In addition to this safety Initiative, Barbara Yau is also involved with CAACNYC (Concerned Asian American Citizens of NYC). Its mission is to stop the hate and stop the violence of Asians. The organization has held two protest marches – one in May and the other in June this year to help educate the Asian community to report crimes to the police Department. There was also a “Send a message to Trump “ Day to make him stop using the terms “kung flu” and “Chinese virus”. Its usage by Trump have been blamed for inciting racist slurs, violence and hate of Asians. This year thousands of hate crimes and racist incidents of Asians have been reported across the United States.
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