Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN) was formed in 2001 to create a united front against the deportation of Cambodian refugees. Chhaya Chhoum of Bronx, NY put out a national call to community organizers to solidify a national Southeast Asian grassroots movement, defend our communities from deportation, and move our collective work out of isolation. After two decades, SEAFN has evolved into a national movement family of local organizations dedicated to the mobilization of Southeast Asian communities towards abolition. 

The Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN) serves as a unique nationally based organization that would mobilize the community based organizations on the ground to lift up their work onto a national platform. Each community based organization was doing work deeply in their community but had little support from a national network that could further elevate the collective experiences of Southeast Asian folks and their communities. Through this understanding, it is our intention to create an ambitious coordinated strategy to build lasting organizing, field, and movement capacity and infrastructure with local, state, and national leaders and organizations. We want to secure economic, immigration, gender equity and dignity for our communities. Southeast Asian folks remain one of the  largest refugee communities ever settled in the United States. It is more pressing now than ever as we understand the multitude of issues that face our communities but none bigger than all the violence against and within Southeast Asian communities at this moment against the backdrop of anti-Asian hate. 

SEAFN’s efforts are led by two representatives from our member organizations, which is governed by one vote from each of the following member organizations of our movement family: 

• Asian American Resource Workshop - member-led organization committed to

building grassroots power through political education, creative expression, and issue-based and neighborhood organizing.

• Hmong American Women’s Association - Organizing Southeast Asian women, Queer and youth towards Gender Justice.

• KhAAGe - Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated Southeast Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Washington state.

• Providence Youth Student Movement - Southeast Asian families, queer, and trans youth of color in Rhode Island. 

• ReleaseMN8 - Khmer, Hmong, and Viet families affected by deportation in Minnesota.

• ManForward - Southeast Asian men and masculine identified folks across the country.

• Mekong NYC - Khmer, Vietnamese refugee families in the Bronx, New York.

• Freedom, Inc. - Black, Hmong, and Khmer women, girls, queer and trans youth in Wisconsin.

• VietLead - Vietnamese and Khmer youth in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.