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MINORITY AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORT
Akaka Receives VVA Award

BY JERRY YAMAMOTO, CHAIR

The VVA National Minority Affairs Committee Diversity Award was presented to Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, on May 20th in his Capitol Hill office by Jerry Yamamoto, Sharon Hodge, and Carl Tuvin. Our group discussed with him the issues that we are working on at VVA. We thanked the Senator for meeting with us and for his outstanding work in support of veterans and the military.

The Minority Affairs Committee has introduced a new resolution for consideration at this year’s National Convention. The resolution calls on the VA to provide interpreters at the VA facilities. These interpreters would be able to communicate with veterans and their family members who are not conversant in English. In 2002 the VA was required by law to study that need and provide those interpreters so families can understand the details of medical procedures.

The MAC is also preparing a Powerpoint presentation on minority veteran recruitment for the 2010 National Leadership Conference in Orlando.

I wish to thank all of the members of the Minority Affairs Committee for their hard work and to all our veterans nationwide for their hard work in support of our committee.