Dear friend,

Happy May Day! We were overjoyed with love from our comrades in support of our members and community in the last few weeks. Today, we are reaching, because this crisis is far from over. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis is disproportionately affecting immigrant workers of color, our families, and communities, and on this May Day, we encourage you all to donate to Adhikaar today. 

Our worker members are in essential and low-wage industries and are working in the frontlines as domestic workers, Uber/Lyft drivers, grocery store workers, delivery services, restaurant workers, and healthcare workers. Many are also not able to go to work and are not eligible for any of the relief packages being discussed at the state or federal level. And many live in some of the hardest-hit zip codes in the country. This crisis demonstrates the harrowing realities of our current social and economic systems and the way it affects those that are extremely vulnerable. 

In all this, we continue to do what we do best - be present and accessible to our community, respond to immediate needs, fighting for what our members deserve, and building power with our members and allies. From support and services on unemployment, housing, and food or medical supplies, to thousands of dollars for emergency relief funds, we are responding daily to the everyday shifts of this pandemic. 

We are constantly adapting our response based on community needs and our capacity while ensuring that we're shedding light on the broader systemic inequalities that this crisis exacerbates. Adhikaar staff and members are speaking with the press and with elected officials to highlight the impact of this crisis on low-income APIA communities, why heavily populated areas with low-wage immigrant workers like ours are the hardest hit, and how we need to continue our organizing work on urgent issues like the census to rights of workers and residency for TPS holders despite these new COVID-19 related challenges. 

Our community is resilient and working tirelessly to fill in the gaps in the safety-net system through mutual aid. We’re organizing people to channel their frustration and uplift their stories through campaigns like #CancelRent and #SaveTPS. We are strengthening the digital capacity of our members by engaging with them through regular phone calls, video sharing platforms, digital messaging applications, social media, and beyond. With all of this, we continue to build community power, and alongside our partners organize to build a more accessible, just, and free future.

We hope you will continue to stand with us and our members on the frontlines and make a contribution today to Adhikaar. Your generosity will ensure that we are able to continue carrying out our COVID-19 rapid response as we build community power for generations to come. 

Thank you for your support. 

In solidarity, 






Pabitra Khati Benjamin