>> now from abc7, "beyond the headlines" with cheryl jennings. >> welcome to "beyond the headlines." our show today focuses on our local asian-pacific-american community, or apa for short. the library of congress defines the asian pacific as encompassing all of the asian continent, as well as the pacific islands of melanesia, micronesia, and polynesia. a u.s. census estimate in 2015 found 19 million residents of asian and pacific islander descent with a total u.s. population of 248 million people. in california, asian and pacific americans make up almost 21% of the population. and the bay area census in 2010 found that asians and pacific islanders make up almost 24% of the population, inching above latinos as the largest minority race across the nine counties. abc7's chris nguyen is here now with local apa leaders to talk about important issues affecting our bay area communities. >> cheryl, it's great to be here. i'm excited to introduce you to our panel of guests today. gina su is an actor based here in the bay area. she's the winner of the 2016-2017 miss asian global pageant. next,

>> now, from abc 7, "beyond the headlines with cheryl jennings." [ bird call chirping ] welcome to our program, coming to you from the beautiful country of peru. it's a popular tourist destination and home to one of the seven wonders of the world, the ancient city of machu picchu. [ indistinct conversations ] but peru also has desperately poor people who are being helped by americans in the san francisco bay area. that charity is called vida usa, which stands for volunteers for inter-american development assistance. vida usa recently marked 25 years of delivering surplus medical equipment and medicine to impoverished areas in latin america. i was invited to see vida usa's programs, and i traveled to peru with them to learn firsthand how it is changing lives at the most basic level. i learned about the tremendous support vida usa has from the bay area to peru because of its mission and its beloved co-founder. >> [ speaking spanish ] >> it was a spectacular 25th-anniversary gala, with 900 donors and the cónsul general of peru in san francisco, candy chávez. haydee rodriguez-pastor is the

>> now, from abc7, "beyond the headlines with cheryl jennings." >> being addicted to opiates is like chasing a dragon -- you're constantly seeking that first high. but what's gonna happen if you actually catch it? >> more than 50,000 people die every year from drug overdoses. that's according to the centers for disease control and prevention, and about half of those deaths are from something called opiates, such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, or fentanyl and heroin. the government says opiate abuse is the leading cause of deaths by accident in the united states. i hope that shocks you, because it certainly shocked me. here in the studio with me to talk about this, two mothers whose college-aged children died from accidental overdoses. from the east bay, april rovero, who lost her son joey, and from marin county, susan kim. you lost your son trey in april. i want to start with you. we've worked together for several years now, been on a couple of panels together. and i want folks to know about joey. what was he like, and what happened to him? >> hmm, well, joey was a senior at arizona stat

>> now, from abc7, "beyond the headlines with cheryl jennings." >> thanks so much for joining us. the new trump administration brings hope to many people and frustration and fear to others, so we reached out to three local professional diplomats whose countries are in the headlines right now. we wanted to learn how we can begin building bridges as friends and neighbors. so i sat down with the consuls general from russia, israel, and mexico, all based in san francisco to get their perspective. >> last year, we issued 20,000 visas to americans living in this part of the world, in this part of the united states... >> the honorable sergey petrov is consul general of the russian federation in san francisco. he and the other consuls general are professional diplomats whose duties include overseeing the processing of legal documents, such as passports, here and around the world. but their primary mission is to build good relations between their countries and the united states. >> we should bring together our businesses, our artists, our actors, our scientists, our students. that's import

>> now, from abc7, "beyond the headlines" with cheryl jennings. >> thanks for joining us. today we're focusing on a major bay area effort to show how people of different faiths and backgrounds can work together to help others. in this case, one group went a very long way on their journey, all the way to greece to meet with refugees who came ashore escaping the violence in syria. my guests include erin zaikis, the u.s. executive director of the international humanitarian aid organization israaid. it's made up of jewish and arab palestinians and israelis. abbas maloo is co-founder of the jaferia islamic school in pleasanton and is regional vice president for mutual of america of northern california. also with us is rabbi marvin goodman, nearly retired from the board of rabbis of northern california, and he was the spiritual leader of the peninsula sinai congregation in foster city for 19 years. thank you all so much for joining us today. >> thank you for having us. >> what a journey. and i can't wait to get started. erin, i want to start with you first. >> sure. >> israaid l

>> now, from abc7, "beyond the headlines" with cheryl jennings. >> we have some encouraging news about the virus that causes aids. the good news is that the number of new cases is declining in this country thanks to advances in medicine, awareness, and early testing. and we hope that everyone will check their status with a simple blood test. now the bad news is that the aids virus is still causing a deadly plague in several countries around the world. a prominent bay area pediatrician, dr. art ammann, battled the aids crisis here among children from the very beginning, and now he's working in africa to help families there. he's been honored for founding an international organization called global strategies for hiv prevention. this man is a legend. he started working on the aids crisis 35 years ago, and at the age of 81? >> 81 now. >> oh, my goodness. you are still fighting the fight with this book. but just for folks who don't know what you did back in the day, you made history. you changed the course of the aids epidemic. >> it was an extraordinary time, cheryl, as you know, because