$1.25 per day. According to the World Bank, this is what defines “extreme poverty” – a condition that describes the lives of at least 1.4 billion people, globally.
And with the most severe income inequality in generations and a widening gap between the nation’s wealthiest and its least, especially among immigrant and refugee communities, is this how we build a democracy?
These were just two of the many observations shared at a special plenary program presented by AAPIP last Saturday, September 17 – Philanthropy and The Economy: Prioritizing Communities, Not Sacrificing Democracy, that included keynote remarks by Eugene Cho, Founder and Executive Director of One Day’s Wages, and Kent Wong, Director of the Labor Research Center at UCLA and a Trustee of The New World Foundation.
The plenary presentation was the cornerstone for the AAPIP National Convening, bringing together AAPIP’s full network for a three-day gathering, including the AAPIP Board of Directors, national chapter leadership, the AAPIP Giving Circle Network of leaders and donors, and community partners working with AAPIP’s National Gender and Equity Campaign Organizational Fellowship Program.
The program also featured compelling stories from three DREAM Act student activists – David Cho of UCLA, and Catherine Eusebio and Ju Hong both at UC Berkeley – on their experience as undocumented students standing-up to unfair and unjust immigration policies that keep them from full pursuit of an education and from getting jobs in an economy to which they can be active contributors and participants.
It was a moving and affirming experience for participants that we are happy to make available in its entirety with the following video, less than a week following the convening. Additional coverage of the plenary will be published in the weeks to come, but so many were so moved by the experience that we wanted to share the full program now. Follow the link below for the full program, and let us know if you have any comments on what was shared.