Freight Philanthropy: CPAF Gala to End Domestic & Sexual Violence

The values of Universal Cargo’s President Shirley Burke and CEO Devin Burke translated into the values of their company, shaping Universal Cargo’s mission statement to enrich the lives of those within the company as well as those they do business with. However, the Burke’s are not interested in stopping with just enriching the lives of people within their business circles.

You don’t have to be around Universal Cargo for long to know that Devin and Shirley Burke are passionate about fighting violence and injustice against women and children.

That passion is easily seen through the philanthropic organizations Universal Cargo supports, such as Zoe International, Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking or CAST,  Truckers Against Trafficking or TAT, and iEmpathize.

One organization in particular that Devin and Shirley, and therefore Universal Cargo, support is Center for the Pacific Asian Family (CPAF).

CPAF was founded to help address domestic violence and sexual assault in the Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Its mission is to build healthy and safe communities by addressing the root causes and the consequences of family violence and violence against women.

The following playlist of stories gives you an idea of the people helped by CPAF’s work:

Every year, CPAF holds a Gala for Change that raises funds and awareness to address the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault in the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Here’s a quick video from CPAF to give you an idea of what that event looks like:

Universal Cargo is sponsoring CPAF’s 40th Anniversary Gala for Change that happens next month (September).

While general admission tickets for this event are sold out, you can still help in the fight against domestic violence and sexual assault on women and children by donating to CPAF.

Go to the UC Cares page of this website to see more about other organizations Universal Cargo supports, like ZOE International and iEmpathize. Both of those organizations focus on human trafficking, a major injustice happening in the world today that Devin and Shirley Burke are passionate about fighting.

“In 2007 I became aware of the horrendous atrocity against humanity called human trafficking,” Shirley says. “I was shocked to learn that child sex trafficking even existed and was extremely unsettled. During a simple conversation with my sister in law about the horrors of child sex trafficking she told me that the USA Director of Zoe Children’s Home, Betsy Meenk was speaking that very next Sunday at her church right after their service. I went, met Betsy and learned about this amazing organization. I have traveled to the ZOE home in Chiang Mai, Thailand, three times and have been able to not only help but to observe and experience the awesome work they are doing there to rescue and restore these children to wholeness.”

Devin says, “”We support ZOE and iEmpathize because we believe human trafficking is one of the biggest travesties in society today.   It is not only the largest form of slavery in history, but it currently is the largest industry in the world passing up the porn industry.  There are several ministries and NGO’s making a difference to eradicate this huge problem.  But we have been involved with both enough to witness firsthand what great work they are doing.  While iEmpathize focuses on the educational side of this issue Zoe has a very successful orphanage and school in Thailand as well as a new safe house in LA. We have visited their Thailand operations in Chang Mai several times and were touched and blown away.”

If you want to support the fight against injustice, there are links on the UC Cares page to donate to CPAF, ZOE, and iEmpathize.