By Julianne Hadfield from
2011 V-Diaries
Katrina Socco is Senior Director of the Youth Leadership Institute, as well as the SF Bay Area Chapter coordinator of AF3IRM. Not until she met Ninotchka Rosca, founder of GABNet (rechristened AF3IRM) aro
und 2003 was she able to talk about surviving domestic violence and sexual assault. In joining GABNet, she found a way to channel her energies through transnational feminism.
Some causes of AF3IRM are the Purple Rose Campaign: exposing and fighting sex trafficking, Export Quality: monologues of Mail Order Bride survivors, reclassifying Mail Order Bride murders as Hate Crimes, and Justice for Laya: standing against the alleged attacker of Laya by UC Student Regent, Jesse Cheng.
Katrina Socco is a powerhouse activist and loving mother, “Every night I get to put my daughter to sleep,
and she’s safe. And, other women can’t do that...I have to work in solidarity with all of them so we can have a
safer world.”
Noelani Sallings is an educational activist and political trailblazer. She has been
the current President of Democratic Activists for Women Now for the last three years and involves herself in other political organizations, like the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific American Democratic Club and BAYMEC. In 2006 and 2008, she ran for the Santa Clarita Unified School Board. She is also a graduate student at Notre Dame de Namur, earning her Masters in Public Administration and Marriage and Family Therapy.
Before politics, Noelani planned on counseling. She had always been interested in how a person’s biology and environment affected one’s psyche. As a survivor of domestic violence, Noelani turned her victimization into survivalism, becoming a change agent, one to give voice to those unheard and power to those unseen. Her motivation and inspiration to work as an advocate generates from her hope to make this world a better place for her daughters.
Nwe Oo, a refugee from Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand. A mother of three children who survived severe isolation and domestic violence. An activist of over fifteen years for women and child rights, for peace, for youth, for indigenous and immigrant populations. A multi-lingual, highly-educated, widely-involved, passionate political advocate. A voice. A presence. A power.
Nwe has worked with many organizations in her lifetime, the most recent is the Community Health for Asian Americans: API Connection. In this program, Nwe and her colleagues work within East Bay communities of mainly immigrant populations, and help connect the community’s needs to providers, such as with language schools, hospitals and interpreters. As a woman who fights for the empowerment of women and children, she urges us all to stand beside those suffering from abuse and feel shame no more.
“We are creating a culture that [is] free. No violence. Peace. Love. Care. That’s my phi
losophy.”
Susie Quesada is the Executive Vice President of Ramar Foods International. However, Susan had not planned on working in the family business. She had hopes of becoming a teacher, and after earning her undergraduate degree, Interdisciplinary Studies in Multicultural Education and Literature at UC Berkeley, she continued on for a teaching credential and began to teach middle school. It was not long, however, before she was invited to join the family business.
Susie started in the warehouse doing data entry. Then she went into accounting and finally, marketing. It was in this position where Susie flourished and realized that her creative side found a home within the company. Now, six years later, Susie oversees the operations, finances and planning with her father and two brothers. But Ramar Foods is not just an international company, they are also the proud nationwide distributors of thousands of V-Diaries printed annually.