China News Service, March 6th. According to the US "World Journal" report, there have been frequent violent cases against Asians in New York City in recent days, and Asian elders are often targeted, making the community panic.
A pair of Chinese siblings in Manhattan Chinatown established the "Protect Chinatown" organization. As long as the elderly call, they will be accompanied by volunteers to protect their travel safety.
Violence cases against Asian Americans in New York City are mostly targeted at older Asian elders who are singled out. Sandy Angela Yang and Ricky Xiao Yang saw these violent cases and began to worry about their parents. I went out safely, and then I wanted to set up a non-profit organization, calling on young volunteers to accompany the elderly or people in need. The process is completely free. A few days ago, I co-founded the "Protect Chinatown" organization with my friends.
Yang Shandi, the director of marketing communications for the organization, said that she and her brother grew up in Chinatown and saw the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on Chinatown not only on the economic level, but also challenged the safety of Chinese communities again, making them feel "Chinatown" It’s not the same anymore"; the newly established "Protection of Chinatown" is used to make phone calls and online appointments through the elderly or those in need, providing travel time, starting point and destination address, and the organization will contact a large number of volunteers Arrangements to send volunteers to "escort" the elderly out of the house to prevent the elderly from being singled out during the trip and becoming the target of attackers.
Yang Shandi said that the volunteers participating in the organization are of all ages and backgrounds, and in addition to English, they can speak multiple languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Fuzhou dialect, Taishan dialect and so on.
After the organization sent the news, it attracted many people to become volunteers, hoping to serve the elderly in the community. Currently, there are about 35 volunteers. In the future, she also hopes to continue serving in other communities.
As the epidemic continues, even if free services are provided to the community, attention should be paid to epidemic prevention.
Yang Shandi said that volunteers need to provide a negative report of the new crown test or a vaccination certificate before signing up. They do not want to protect the community while infecting the virus to high-risk elderly people, which will become a breach of epidemic prevention.
"Protecting Chinatown" has now begun to provide services, and those in need can call to make an appointment 24 hours before travel.
(Yan Jiaying)