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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - July 15, 2008
Kim Chaiwon Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
July 15, 2008

Doraville, Georgia Resident Wins Cash Award To Support Shelter For Asian American Victims Of Domestic Violence


(New York, NY, July 15, 2008) Doraville, Georgia resident Chaiwon Kim, 62, is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of creating a better tomorrow for her community. Chaiwon was named this week’s winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, a weekly $5,000 cash award program from Avon Products, Inc. to support individuals in their work to empower women. She is the fourth Hello Tomorrow Fund recipient from Georgia and was selected by a newly expanded panel of judges that now includes Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York and actress Phylicia Rashad. Chaiwon will use her award to support the launch of Safe Haven, a shelter for female victims of domestic violence in the Metro Atlanta area, through the Center for Pan Asian Community Services.

In many Asian cultures, it is considered unacceptable to discuss matters of the home to people outside the family. Often times, women and children who are abused have nowhere to turn for support. Many Asian women are left with no choice but to remain in volatile, often dangerous living situations because they feel ashamed to ask for help. As an immigrant herself, Chaiwon has experienced these cultural differences firsthand and empathizes with women who have trouble articulating what they need to build a better life for themselves and their children.

After becoming a registered nurse and then owning her own ice cream shop, Chaiwon wanted to find a way to help women like her succeed in America and have a place to go for help and support. In 1990 she started volunteering with the Center for Pan Asian Community Services and quickly became the first female Asian Executive Director for the organization. She made strong progress in providing access to healthcare for women and children and created the first linguistically and culturally targeted Asian medical clinic in her community. Chaiwon also launched the first Korean breast cancer survivors support group in Georgia.

The Metro Atlanta area is where 75% of the state’s Asian population resides and is home to nearly 500,000 Asian families, mostly from Korea, China, Vietnam and East India. There are no shelters within Atlanta and the surrounding communities that specifically cater to the cultural needs of Asian women. Because of this, many Asian women and their families escaping domestic violence are not provided with a nurturing environment where they feel accepted and understood while they get their lives back on track. The Center for Pan Asian Community Services has a domestic violence prevention program where social services are provided to victims so they can address how to keep themselves and their children safe while living in a hostile home, but there was no place where women and their children could stay in an emergency.

Chaiwon took the necessary steps to make her dream of opening a shelter a reality when she secured a location and received private funding to pay for the renovations and initial housing permit for Safe Haven, now set to open in January of 2009. Chaiwon will use her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award to train and recruit volunteers and provide food for one year for all eight Safe Haven residents. All volunteer workers and full time staff will be able to speak various Asian languages so guests will be able to communicate and receive the help they need. Thanks to her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award, Chaiwon will give many Asian women the comfort and support they need to rebuild their lives.

Chaiwon’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund met the criteria of clearly presenting unique and achievable objectives to empower women or girls and ultimately improve society. It was selected from a pool of strong contenders by an expert panel of judges, including personal finance expert, Suze Orman, actress Phylicia Rashad and Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York. “Opening a culturally sensitive domestic violence shelter for Asian American women sounds like a perfect way for these women to get help, while respecting their cultural traditions,” notes judge Lynn Stekas of Chaiwon’s proposal.

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