More than 30 percent of Americans have witnessed someone blaming Asian people for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent national survey<\/a>, and those incidents occur in a number of forms. More than 1,500 cases of coronavirus-related discrimination directed toward Asian people have been reported since mid-March, says the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, which has set up an online system<\/a> to collect reports of racism, discrimination, and physical threats against Asian and Asian American people.<\/p>\n The entire situation was frustrating for Kelly Ha.<\/p>\n Ha, from West Hartford, is a Master’s of Social Work student in the UConn School of Social Work. While she hadn\u2019t experienced an incident herself, stories coming in from Connecticut and around the country \u2013 and the fear she saw in her friends and family \u2013 bothered her.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family members are constantly afraid to leave the house, because they fear they\u2019re going to be attacked,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re afraid they\u2019re going to be hit, or they\u2019re going to be verbally abused. My privilege is that I haven\u2019t felt that, yet. But this is happening, and I think it\u2019s really important that we bring awareness to this.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s when a new campaign, #IAMNOTAVIRUS<\/a>, came into Ha\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Created in response to growing reports and outright displays of anti-Asian rhetoric and behavior around COVID-19, #IAMNOTAVIRUS started as a portrait project \u2013 founded by West Hartford photographer Mike Keo \u2013 that sought to portray Asian Americans as the neighbors, community members, and business owners that they are.<\/p>\n Each portrait was accompanied by a three-item \u201cI Am\u201d statement describing who the person is, in their own view, beyond their race or ethnicity, which stands in contrast to the hashtag that describes what they are not: a virus.<\/p>\n \u201cThe statements are about who you are as a relatable person in the community, to stop the dehumanization of the Asian community as just being a virus,\u201d Ha says. \u201cSo, for me, my three \u2018I Ams\u2019 are that I am a Master’s of Social Work student, I am a mental health advocate, and I am a health care worker.\u201d<\/p>\n Ha sat for a portrait early on in the campaign, before social distancing and stay-at-home measures took effect, but she didn\u2019t want to just be an image in the campaign. Part of a long history of political social work organizers, she wanted to do more. She joined the campaign as its outreach coordinator, in charge of connecting with those who reached out through social media and email, connecting with academics and other stakeholders, and working with a team of influencers to create content in order to expand the campaign\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n Now serving as the campaign manager, Ha is part of a team of eight people who are active on social media, conducting media interviews, planning new forms of outreach \u2013 like podcasting and a magazine \u2013 and interfacing with members of the Asian American community in the United States and abroad who have stories to tell about their experiences with COVID-19-related racism. The campaign is also focused on mental health \u2013 near and dear to Ha, as a social work student \u2013 by connecting community members with available mental health resources and planning a series of videos with tips, advice, and coping techniques from mental health professionals.<\/p>\n \u201cOur campaign works to raise awareness,\u201d says Ha. \u201cThe Asian community doesn\u2019t really have a voice. I feel like people know we are present, but don\u2019t always hear us. We want everyone to understand that this is a very human campaign. We want everyone to understand that we hear you, and that you deserve to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"UConn](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/IAMNOTAVIRUS_KellyHa-240x300.jpg\")