The following are excerpts from 09/20/23 DingDingTV:

By Gerrye Wong, CHCP Co-Founder and Trustee

Although  there were at least 24 steep stairs to climb to the second floor of the Far East Restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown, that didn’t deter over 300 people from coming to congratulate the Gum Moon/Asian Women’s Resource Center (AWRC) at its annual benefit fundraising luncheon on September 16.  As Director Gloria Tan told the audience, “Gum Moon Women’s Residence was founded in 1868 to rescue Chinese girls who had been sold into slavery and prostitution. To meet other evolving needs of its Chinatown target population, Gum Moon directed its attention to the care and education of abandoned Chinese girls and babies in the late 1800s. In 1984 Gum Moon’s leaders reached out to a wider segment of the community in its provision of social and educational services. By the late 1990s Gum Moon began offering transitional housing to women in need.”

Board President Selina Soo Lim added, “Today Gum Moon/Asian Women’s Resource Center offers educational programs and services which include affordable housing for low income women, transitional housing and programming for women survivors of abuse, parent-child interactive groups, after school programming, and many other services including information and referral support. In essence Gum Moon/AWRC and the Asian Family Support Centers serve more than 5500 women, children and their families each year.”

This year’s theme was WOMEN MAKING A DIFFERENCE and unabashedly I am proud to have been chosen as one of the honored women for my work volunteering for half a dozen non-profit organizations, by serving on their Boards, and as the co-founding member of the Chi Am Circle, a 55-year-old Asian American women’s club, and also co-founding the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project, which had as their goal project to build a Museum of Chinese American History in Santa Clara Valley. Thank you Board member Mina Li for presenting a beautiful crystal desk plaque for this honor and a lovely bouquet of flowers.

Proof that Gum Moon has established itself through its long history as a very important part of the Chinese community in San Francisco was the fact that San Francisco Mayor London Breed made an appearance to personally present each honoree with a certificate from her office.  Likewise District Attorney Brooke Jenkins congratulated the three honorees with a certificate from her office.  City Attorney David Chiu presented proclamations from the city to the honorees and all  expressed admiration for the work that Gum Moon does for needy women and children and as always, pledged to continue working to make San Francisco the safe city it once was.