The Uyghur American Association (UAA) and the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) held a join press conference at the National Press Club to draw attention to the widespread issue of hunger in East Turkistan amidst draconian COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Members of the Uyghur American community spoke to the press about the devastating situation.

Uyghur American Association (UAA) and Ana Care & Education co-hosted the International Mother Language Day event at the Uyghur Center in Fairfax, VA. The guest of honor, Abduweli Ayup, gave an inspiring speech on the importance of preserving our mother tongue, the Uyghur language, and the roles of parents in teaching and preserving the Uyghur language.

On February 5, 2020, in remembrance of the Ghulja massacre on (1997), the Uyghur American Association organized a protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC. Uyghur Americans and allies were demonstrating against the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other Turkic ethnic groups in China.

Kuzzat Altay, President of the UAA, along with two Uyghur medical scientists, Dr. Maysem Mutalipova, Director of the Human Stem Cell lab at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Sciences, and Dr. Mehmet Emin, Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University Medical Center, met with White House and State Department officials to discuss the high risk of COVID-19 spread in concentration and forced labor camps throughout East Turkistan (Xinjiang).