About us
We believe in building refugee and immigrant voice, visibility, justice, and power.
Our story
Asian Refugees United (ARU) is a grassroots art and healing organization serving communities impacted by displacement. Established in 2016, ARU exists to improve the health and well-being of Asian immigrant and refugee communities by building voice, visibility and power. ARU is 100% staffed by first, 1.5 and second generation immigrant/refugee artist activists with deep connections to communities served.
ARU staff and project leaders use arts modalities that include traditional and contemporary music and movement, storytelling, cultural rituals and practices, visual art-making and media production to provide healing and leadership development opportunities for Asian refugee youth and adults.
Refugees often face poverty, racism and language barriers, leading to struggles with school, work and civic participation and linking to a myriad of mental and physical health challenges, from diabetes to depression and even suicide. ARU believes that shared arts and cultural practices that intentionally focus on healing help us understand the harmful systems and trauma impacting us, name our demands for change and build personal and collective capacity to take action. This includes sharing our stories in performance and exhibition at spaces like Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Oakland Museum of California, Eastside Arts Alliance and ARTogether gallery.
Asian Refugees United exists to improve the health and wellbeing of Asian immigrant and refugee communities by building voice, visibility and power. Our work centers the voices of the Vietnamese and Bhutanese refugee communities who fled persecution in their home country only to face new and shared struggles resettling in East Oakland, California and Greater Harrisburg Area, Pennsylvania.
Asian Refugees United grew from the experiences of Asian refugees sharing their culture and stories, developing their leadership and political analysis, building solidarity with multiple communities and taking action to improve their communities health holistically and in their workplaces. Vietnamese and Bhutanese women learned how to deepened their engagement with their own communities to advocate for health locally and on state-wide levels. The Asian refugees who participated in our program for the last 5-10 years have uniquely experienced political education, cultural healing, and inter-ethnic community building which has allowed them a voice to speak up and raise awareness about their experience and improve the health of their communities. In addition, due to the unique challenges of intergenerational trauma and cultural barriers, relationship and trust-building are key strengths of our work that have been built out within the last decade. Our advocates and organizers are uniquely positioned to bring out residents who would otherwise face fear and isolation from community involvement.
ARU is a member of the Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality (AACRE) network, through which it collaborates with ten other California organizations serving East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian Muslim communities, as well as LGBTQ+ Asian American communities and currently and formerly incarcerated, detained and deported people. Together we work toward an inclusive vision of justice for all our people.
How ARU was founded
by Co-founder and Chair: Tracy Nguyen
Meet Our Staff
Robin Gurung
Co-Executive Director
Robin is Co-Executive Director of Asian Refugees United (ARU) and director for all ARU's programs in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Born in Bhutan in 1988, raised in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, Robin came to the United States of America in 2012 through the Refugee Resettlement Program. He brings his 20 years of refugee experiences to his community organizing work and focuses on empowering refugee youths to become the change agents in their community. While previously living in the Bay Area, Robin co-founded a youth group called Bay Area Bhutanese Youths, BABY, (now "The Storytellers" operating in Harrisburg, PA) which brings together Bhutanese youths to tell stories of refugees and immigrants. Focus of "The Storytellers" is to bring awareness about displacement issues and what comes after displacement: identity crisis, search for home, (dis)connection to our ancestors/roots, and hope for humanity. Robin also helped co-found Camp for Emerging Leaders (also known as CAMP), an annual 3 to 5 day leadership training program for self identified Bhutanese organizers, activists, artists, and emerging community leaders. The CAMP is an immersion experience into personal and community transformation. Robin also served as the President of Bhutanese Community in California (2017-21).
Trang Tran
Co-Executive Director
Trang identifies as a queer, gender-nonconforming, 1.5 Vietnamese immigrant who aspires to live their truth as bright and powerful as the full moon. Born in Saigon and growing up in the East Bay, Trang's work is focused on building within the Vietnamese community to heal trauma and uplift power. Through community organizing and creative expressions, they strive to build a cultural healing hub that centers intergenerational nourishment of traditional food and drink. In their free time, they dance, write poetry, bond with their siblings, breathe, and spread love and compassion.
Dohee Lee
Director of Arts and Healing
Dohee is a Korean American performance artist, musician, ritualist and educator who is was born on Jeju Island in South Korea. Dohee Lee is a creative visionary trained at the master level in traditional Korean music, singing, drumming and dance rooted in Korean Shamanism. Since her arrival in the United States, she has been a vital contributor to both the traditional and contemporary arts landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. She has performed in venues and festivals around the world and has collaborated with a wide range of artists such as dancers/choreographers Anna Halprin, Kronos Quartet, Amara Tabor-Smith, Donald Swearingen, the Degenerate Art Ensemble and more. She is a recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship 2018, Hewlett 50 Arts Commission 2018, Doris Duke Impact Award, Herb Alpert Award, Creative Capital Award, the Isadora Duncan Special Award, and numerous other artist residencies.
Parsu Adhikari
Parsu Adhikari is a passionate photographer and filmmaker who has a deep interest in storytelling and community organizing. He was born in Bhutan and Raise in Bhutanese refugee camp Goldhap, where he learned the art of storytelling through drama. His love for photography and film making led him to study them and sharpen his skills. where he continues to pursue his passion for storytelling through the visual medium. As a part of his work he directed the documentary film THE WAITING EYES FOR REUNION (A documentary film based on Bhutanese refugees struggle in camp).
JaeEun Jun
JaeEun Jun (they/them) is continually exploring what liberation, decolonizing and wholeness means as a corean person in diaspora on turtle island with community rituals and sound through Puri Arts, legal advocacy with communities impacted by incarceration through Unapologetically H.E.R.S., and learning to listen and care with plants and seeds and their stories through Second Generation Seeds.
Hải Võ
Communications & Program Manager
Hải was raised by parents from two delta villages in southern Việt Nam - Mỹ Tho and Chợ Gạo (Tiền Giang). Hải identifies as a queer 2nd generation Việt Southeast Asian cook, foodways cultural artist, and writer of the diaspora and is passionate about ancestral foodways, decolonization, homeland connections, and the creative arts to liberate all people, especially those most marginalized.
Advisory Board
Chair: Tracy Nguyen