" APAWLI for me is a river... It's a gathering of histories.
It's a gathering of futures. It's gathering of all time...
Every time I come, every time I work on something with you,
I hear a thousand voices that I never heard before."
-- Reverand Wako Puanani Burgess
Dear Friend of APAWLI,
 A poet and a member of the Asian Pacific American Women's Leadership Institute, Puanani Burgess has given us key metaphors: the river and the voice. Every river has a mouth, and the mouth has a voice. At APAWLI, we recognize that yours is an important voice we have not heard. APAWLI needs you, needs your voice, because nobody else has your history or your future. Nobody else can tell your story. Nobody else can take your place as we gather at the river. That's why yours is a voice I welcome, encourage, invite. If APAWLI is likened to a river, then the voices of Asian American and Pacific Islander women are the wellspring of the river, and your added voice can help sustain APAWLI's flow.
As you may know, APAWLI ranks as the only Asian American and Pacific Islander organization of its kind in the United States. APAWLI channels professional development, networking and empowerment to Asian American and Pacific Islander women, and we're marking our fifth year of service--a milestone that couldn't have occurred without support of like-minded individuals like you. When you add your voice and your support to the hundreds of leaders like yourself, you assure that APAWLI will continue to serve as a fountainhead for the AA/PI women leaders in this new century.
"The river must move and you can choose to become part of it or not,
You can choose to stay on the bank. You can choose never to come close
to it. But our choices can never deny that the river exists."
-- Puanani Burgess
Perhaps in the past you've chosen not to step into the stream of things through APAWLI. Perhaps you have chosen, instead, to remain on the river bank. Now I am inviting you, encouraging you, urging you to test APAWLI's waters. Your gift of $25 or more will add your name to the pool of subscribers to Connections, APAWLI's biannual newsletter that delivers practical leadership guidance, up-to-date information on gatherings, inspirational stories about Asian American and Pacific Islander women who have taken or are about to take their place as today's leaders.
Your gift also will help APAWLI continue our legacy of leadership training resulting in concrete contributions to communities around our nation and beyond. In the year 2000 APAWLI continues to provide our three-week fellowship program in which, to date, a total of 57 women leaders have participated. Thanks to the generosity of women like you, APAWLI Fellows have completed Leadership Impact Projects accomplishing the following:
- education students in Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Palolo, Hawaii;
- honoring and preserving the Samoan culture for thousands of students, parents and teachers in American Samoa;
- acting as patron of the arts by inspiring Filipina writers and funding murals, theater productions, cultural dance and films that decry racism and celebrate diversity;
- sponsoring a medical mission and providing computers and television in classrooms in the Philippines; and much, much more.
When you support APAWLI, you will share the pride in what APAWLI women have achieved and will to continue to accomplish with your help.
Again this year, we will offer one-day leadership workshop intensives geared toward enhancing skills. Also this year, APAWLI is conducting a nationa research study to provide a demographic snapshot of the status of AA/PI women at leadership and management tables across all secors at th end of the 20th century. The research study will also provide data from five focus groups compuised of AA/PI women leaders across the country. The study will disclose how we perceive ourselves and how opinion leaders perceive us.
With your support, we can continue these vital programs and add evenmore APAWLI offerings. In the spirit of sisterhood, I ask you once again, for your help in APAWLI's important endeavor. In her poem, Puanani urged, "Let us gather at the River." You can make the first step around the bend by completing and returning the enclosed reply envelope with your gift now. When you gather at the River with your Asian American and Pacific Island women peers, I trust you will know a sense of belonging, a sense of homecoming we of APAWLI have come to cherish.
Thank you for helping APAWLI continue its good work, and thank you for adding your boice to the story that is ours.
In Sisterhood,
Anni Chung
Board Chair
P.S. Please send your donation now, and help APAWLI continue to convene, inform and inspire Asian American and Pacific Islander women leaders. Your contribution will be appreciated and stewarded wisely.
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