About The Blog

Weaving Identities is an initiative of Ujyalo Foundation to bring the stories, amplify the voices, and raise awareness about racial injustice among South Asians and Southeast Asian immigrants in the Denver area so that they can have meaningful representation and participation at both community and policy levels.

The main objective of this initiative is to bring the stories and narratives of the communities to the forefront so they can be documented allowing the communities and individuals to share their own stories and developing a course of actions to resolve their issues. The lack of proper representation in the data set has been concerning especially when it comes to understanding, designing, and implementing community-focused programs. Lumped in the narrative and stories of the larger AAPI population, Southeast Asians are often overshadowed by other identities limiting them to generalized interventions and solutions that often do not address their needs and wants.

While Asians only comprise 4% of Colorado’s population, South Asians have even less representation and visibility. Often the term “Asian” refers specifically to East Asians (China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan). Historically, the South Asian community has been under-resourced and underrepresented. Additionally, the representation of women and girls from this community is even more nominal. Therefore, we want to foster a space to provide an intersectional approach to amplify the voices of these women and girls such that they are not behind.