Ajumma Cares Initiative

You donate through our fiscal sponsor, KIWA

You can also donate to our restaurant partner or a community specific initiative like Black and Korean Coalition.

Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

The Korean word “ajumma” means “married woman” or it connotes a middle aged woman. In working class and low income neighborhoods, ajummas take on roles as caregivers and community stewards. Yet, they are rarely given material resources directly. They show up quietly to help while being ignored by white and BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) patriarchies and the women who sit adjacent to the men in power.

We want to amplify the work of working women in our BIPOC communities through our “Ajumma Cares Initiative”. She exists in all BIPOC communities under various nomenclatures. She’s the neighborhood aunty and tia too.

You can find her at churches, grassroots community organizations, and various local meetings. She shows up a lot. She shows up to help. You can find her during times of crisis. She’s the one with the sad and urgent look on her face because she knows her people and others are suffering. Very often, she was marginalized while growing up or she has a marginalized child. She has witnessed multiple times of crisis when her people were overlooked for aid. She has heard the same hollow promises and rhetoric before. The announcements of big aid that almost never reach the poorest of the poor.

Asian Americans for Housing also helps others help others. We want to amplify, elevate, and give material resources to more ajummas, aunties, and tias from Boyle Heights, Koreatown, South Central Los Angeles, and beyond. They have helped us identify and give direct aid to low income BIPOC seniors who are isolated. The oldest of the old with no children or family. People in their 80s and 90s who live alone in nooks and crannies allover Los Angeles.

Help us continue our collective work by donating to Asian Americans for Housing.

We’re BAC (Black and Asian Coalition in CD10, South Central LA and Koreatown and beyond) started by Susan Park and Zerita Jones of Los Angeles Tenants Union Baldwin Hills/Leimert Park/Crenshaw District Local.