In December, as part of 16 Days of Activism, a global movement to end gender-based violence that starts every year on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ends on December 10th, Human Rights Day, I moderated a panel on behalf of Amnesty International's Los Angeles Chapter, to discuss the COVID-19's impact on gender-based violence. The pandemic has had a major effect on everyone, in multiple ways, and it has brought out of the shadows the widespread and and large scale of issues that often gets tucked away in the shadow of society. 

​A recording of the panel is now available on YouTube for you to watch.  We had a stellar panel including Tani Ikeda, and representatives from Break the Cycle, SafeBAE, and AmnestyUSA.

This year, I became actively involved with Amnesty International, an organization I have known of since I was in high school, but only just learned of its origins. Amnesty started with the simple act of one of my favorite past times (still a current happening for me), and that is letter writing. In general a nice, simple, and thoughtful letter in the mail from someone you love always warms the heart and brightens your day. But did you know letter writing can also save lives?

Earlier this year, I became one of the founding members of Amnesty International's LA Chapter. I know it's hard to believe there wasn't one before, but that's the truth. As a group, we decided to focus on women's and refugees' issues. From there, to help refugees in our community, we became involved in helping resettle those who have been granted resettlement in LA. This process has opened up my eyes to things I never thought about--things many of us have never thought about. What happens when a refugee gets resettled?

This summer I had one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and I've had some pretty amazing experiences in my life, if I do say so myself. In my work with Amnesty International, our LA chapter is committed to helping refugee resettlement in LA. We were connected with IRIS, the Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, one of three refugee resettlement agencies left in the LA/OC areas (I'll get into this in another post), and one of our first tasks was to help welcome a family from El Salvador and take them to their new home in LA. I did not expect all the emotions I experienced that day, and the love and joy I witnessed that day is indescribable--though I'm going to try to describe it to you.