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2019-2023
2019
We met at home and discussed at San Leandro, CA
Before the US Based Deaf Action Foundation (USBDAF) was established in 2019, Rachel Akusake noticed that many black deaf communities including immigrants and refugees have been struggling, repression, frustrating and discrimination related to race, gender, and disability for years and it is still happening today. Most black deaf youth and single mothers do not know that education is important and how it can change their lives. They drop out of high schools, become idle gamblers, etc. They don’t have skills or experience or a degree to get a better job. Most Deaf BIPOC including immigrants and refugees are not familiar with the systems in the United States. Most deaf immigrants and refugees get culture shock when they immigrate to the United States every year They find themselves miscommunicated, and are overwhelmed when they relocate to America. Rachel noticed that black or BIPOC hearing people are very fewer due to lack of orientation of interpreting programs and job opportunities for them to deserve. Most BIPOC families who have deaf children are backward in getting useful information or resources to support them and their deaf children needs. A lot of deaf children’s language is deprived. Rachel decided to take the action to research, contribute ideas and develop to set up the official organization name and registered as an exempt nonprofit on October 30, 2019. She and a few Deaf BIPOC at my apartment at San Leandro, CA on Sunday once every month. Later we also met virtually and who were presented: Charlotte Stuart, Philip Akurigo, Dean Kanasto, and Rachel Akusak. The meeting was about the constitution, leadership roles and our experiences in society.
2020
During the CVOID-19 pandemic
We were planning to take action on the program, but had decided to suspend it because of COVID-19 pandemic. We continued to have meetings sometimes and contribute to collect some useful information, ideas, and resources from other organizations and professors to build our organization step by step. We took time to proceed slowly to ensure everything was in the right place before we opened our organization in public.
2021
We finally found the small office, but worked slowly during the COVID-19 crisis
We received the space office at South San Francisco, however, a few weeks later we realized that not all deaf people have a car to stop by the office. The bart station is very far. It’s difficult for deaf people to come to the office. Finally, we moved to Merritt Lake in Oakland, which is close to Bart station and bus services in that area. We served a few deaf clients in California and other states.
2022
We introduced our organization to deaf community
We did a workshop about the asl interpreters at the San Francisco Public Library.
Chick-Fil-A donated food for our organization’s celebration party in December, 2022. We invited some deaf participants for a celebration at Park 19th Harrison Street, Oakland, CA. Unfortunately, most of them did not show up because of the weather and financial situations. Some new deaf diversity leaders joined us to work with us.
2023
We are working in developing
For more than 4 years, USBDAF has worked to advance the rights of the US Based Deaf Action Foundation in advocating, educating, empowering, providing better services and resources to access for deaf, hard of hearing, deaf immigrants, families, and the diversity of ASL interpreters. This organization is still new, but working on growing into the largest services of the organization in the nation. Our aim is to protect rights, break the barriers equal opportunities for everyone, and stop discrimination in society.
Thank you for supporting our work and continuing to join us and work with us to make a big impact.