Asian Women United of Minnesota in collaboration with various Asian Pacific Islander organizations and community leaders will host the first “API Men Institute.” The two day event is free and open to the public on August 19-20, 2010 at Augsburg College, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on both days on campus at 2211 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1350.
This first API Men Institute in the state is a call to action to all API men to examine the intersection of sexism and racism and to explore how power and privilege contributes to violence against women and children. Participants will be invited to make a personal commitment to help end the oppression of women.
The issue of domestic violence is a crisis in all communities. The Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women notes that there were 17 API women and 6 Asian children were killed as a result of domestic violence in Minnesota from 1999 to 2009.
MCBW statistics also note that in all populations 18 adults were killed in 2009 alone due to familial and domestic violence, and that 12 were women killed by a current or former intimate partner. Countless others continue to suffer physical, emotional and verbal abuse on a daily basis.
“Well-meaning men need to take action to end violence against women because men have a unique and powerful role in ending violence. Men need to stop giving other men permission to oppress women,” asserts AWUM Community Programs Director Pheng Thao.
For more information and to register call 612-724-0756 or email [email protected].
The API Men Institute sponsoring partners include: Augsburg College, A Call to Men, Freedom, Inc., Greater Twin Cities United Way, Hnub Tshiab: Hmong Women Achieving Together, Pan-Asian Student Services (Augsburg), Pangea World Theater, Professional Hmong Women Association, Sewa-Asian Indian Family Wellness, and Sib Pab Ciaj Vaj.
AWUM is a non-profit organization dedicated to end domestic violence by promoting safe and healthy relationships within the Asian-Pacific Islander community. For almost a decade, AWUM has provided 24-hour emergency shelter (House of Peace) and advocacy to women and children victimized by domestic violence in the Minneapolis/St. Paul and surrounding areas.
