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Asian- Americans in California give heavily to tsunami victims
Asian-Americans are coming together across ethnic lines - in some cases for the first time- as they seek to help victims of the tidal wave that devastated South Asia in December, according to the nonprofit New California Media, a nationwide association of more than 700 ethnic media groups, which commissioned the poll. Half the poll's 606 respondents said the tsunami had made them feel more connected to other Asian-Americans in California. "I've asked that question before, and honestly this is the first time I've gotten such a high response," said Sergio Bendizen, whose firm Bendixen and Associates conducted the poll. The survey was funded in part by inter Trend Communications. Hassina Leelarathna, editor of the Sri Lanka Express newspaper in Arlita, believes the connections will be maintained. "The Indian, the Pakistani, the Thai- I've never met so many people from these countries," said Leelarathna, who came to the United States from Sri Lanka in 1976. "there's a bonding, and it's real. It's going beyond the tsunami." The survey found 64 percent of California's Asian-Americans have donated money to the relief effort, compared to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in January that found 33 percent of all American adults had given money. Asian-Americans make up less than 4 percent of the nation's population, but in California they have given an estimated $200 million, Bendizen said. That compares to an estimated $1 billion donated by American adults nationwide, according to the Center for Philanthropy at the University of Indiana. |
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