We have been excited to reinvigorate our chapter over the last few months, with the addition of new Chicago Chapter Chair Karin Lee and Reproductive Justice Chair Eileen Rosete, who are taking the reins from stalwart NAPAWF activists Diana Lin and Rose Olea. We are so grateful to Diana and Rose for their years of leadership, and are lucky that they both plan to remain active with our new and growing board!

In addition to our bi-monthly e-newsletter Chapter Announcements, some recent Chapter activities include:

• January 2012 – The Chicago Chapter of the National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) invites you to be part of a community-wide project on the sexual and reproductive health and wellness of Asian & Pacific Islander (API) women in the Chicago area. Over the next five months, NAPAWF-Chicago wants to get input from API women and their allies on how they define reproductive justice and its importance within their communities. To get more details and participate click here. A recent article in Medill Reports Chicago highlights this work by NAPAWF Chicago and Joy Messinger on reproductive justice.

• August 2011 – We had a strong showing at our August open chapter meeting and are excited by the momentum building in our chapter. Our chapter’s Reproductive Justice Survey Project is also off to a strong start, with newly hired fierce sister, Joy Messinger coming on board. We look forward to celebrating sisterhood and social justice at our upcoming Fall mixer in october and will also continue hosting open chapter meetings on the first Thursdays of every month.

• July 2011 – NAPAWF-Chicago seeks an energetic consultant to help develop and implement  a groundbreaking Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Reproductive Justice focused community survey project. The two-fold purpose of the project is to better understand the current reproducitve justice needs and priorities of API women and girls in Chicago and strengthen the API community in Chicago by creating linkages between organizations where API women and girls access services. There will be a stipend to compensate for the position and the deadline to apply is August 15, 2011. To get more details, click here.

• June 2011 – NAPAWF Reproductive Justice Fellow Jaspreet Chowdhary joined us from Washington, D.C. to facilitate a workshop on the complex connection between son preference in API communities and sex selection abortion bans. This robust and thought provoking discussion was co-sponsored by the Chicago Foundation for Women’s Asian American Leadership Council, and generously hosted by Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL).

• May 2011 - We held a book discussion on Somaly Mam‘s “The Road of Lost Innocence” at Women and Children First Bookstore in Andersonville. NAPAWF-Chicago members discussed the powerful memoir as well as the human trafficking issues that it raises. Special thanks to Fierce Sister Hannah Jurowicz for her help in organizing this event!

• April 2011 – Growing out of our January event, NAPAWF-Chicago hosted a more in-depth workshop in April on API Reproductive Justice, graciously facilitated by long time community activists Inhe Choi and Aparna Sharma, and co-sponsored by Rape Victim Advocates (RVA) and the Chicago Foundation for Women’s Asian American Leadership Council. Participants explored the concept of Reproductive Justice, and its meaning within the Asian American community.

• April 2011 – Also in April, we released a statement against anti-choice billboards in the Chicago area, especially in support of Black Women for Reproductive Justice (BWRJ)

• March 2011 - We organized a tour of the internationally touring art exhibit “Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art” at Chicago’s Cultural Center. The powerful exhibit addresses violence against women and their basic human right to safety, security and justice around the world. NAPAWF-Chicago members and supporters toured this powerful exhibit, led by Rape Victim Advocates Executive Director Sharmili Majmudar.

• January 2011 – Building off of several afternoon teas last fall, NAPAWF Chicago hosted a high level gathering of API women leaders in January to discuss reproductive justice, co-sponsored by the Chicago Foundation for Women’s Asian American Leadership Council and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health. The January gathering identified a clear need for a more cohesive and prominent API women’s voice in Chicago on reproductive justice, and will be followed by a reproductive justice focused workshop in the spring. Coming out of the January gathering, Chicago is also working to develop a community survey tool to better understand the needs of the community, and the resources currently available to community members as related to reproductive justice.

• December 2010 – We hosted a third successful afternoon tea on domestic violence, featuring speakers Hye Shin Park from KAN-WIN and Ranjana Khan from Apna Ghar, two of Chicago’s leading organizations that provide services to women and children affected by domestic violence and abuse. Attendees included Kappa Phi Lambda sisters from Northwestern University, who came out despite finals and below zero weather!

• October 2010 – We co-sponsored an afternoon tea on reproductive justice with the Chicago Foundation for Women’s Asian American Leadership Council that featured fierce sister Soo Ji Min, 2010 Chicago Community Trust Fellow, and was hosted by Northwestern University School of Law. Inspired by the discussion at the tea and the clear need for a stronger API women’s voice on reproductive justice issues, we plan to continue working with participants from our tea to strengthen and build up the API women’s community and voice here in Chicago.

• September 2010 – We hosted an introductory afternoon tea that brought Karin and Eileen into the Chicago chapter. Karin brings with her over 6 years of experience with NAPAWF’s Yale and Washington, D.C. chapters.  Eileen comes to NAPAWF Chicago with a B.A. in Asian American Studies from the University of California Irvine, extensive experience working with Asian American nonprofit organizations, and a passion for women’s reproductive justice issues.

We look forward to continue growing our chapter, and working with both new and former sisters toward social justice and human rights for all API women and girls!

We are looking for more API women to join NAPAWF-Chicago as a general member or a Board member. If you are in the Chicago area and would like to learn more about NAPAWF-Chicago and/or would like to get involved, please contact us at chicagochapter@napawf.org. You can also visit us on Facebook by searching for “NAPAWF Chicago”.