Help DRUM Family who Lost Everything in Bronx Fire
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DRUM leaders fight for the working-class. Now, an undocumented DRUM leader needs your support.
Another day, another millionaire landlord in New York City ruins their tenant's lives and gets away with it unscathed. But this time, it has impacted a DRUM leader in the Bronx who has played a major role in various campaigns to make our city more liveable for working-class New Yorkers. She’s fought for increased tenant protections. Now, as she faces a crisis, it is our responsibility to ensure that she is taken care of so that our people and our movements can emerge from this crisis stronger than before.
Dipa is an undocumented Bangladeshi immigrant who lost everything in a late-night fire on February 14, 2025. This is the second fire that took place in the Bronx in less than 24 hours. Dipa, her husband, and her two children are now homeless. Like most fire victims, they were offered a temporary hotel room by the Red Cross for a limited time after which they must find alternative housing or enter the city’s overcrowded and subpar shelter system for homeless families.
Dipa has helped change what people think women can do within the conservative Bangladeshi community of Parkchester in the Bronx. She can often be found canvassing in the Bronx where she will talk to community members about DRUM, which organizes working-class South Asian and Indo-Caribbean youth and adults across New York City. She will explain to working-class residents how the Secure Jobs Campaign will offer them protections from unjust firings from employers or how the Unemployment Bridge Program would offer unemployment benefits to workers who are undocumented or earning wages in cash.
At first, it was controversial for women within the neighborhood to speak to strangers about politics. But DRUM members have successfully changed the norms showing that women can and should take visible leadership roles to fight for a New York that allows the working-class to live with dignity.
The Parkchester Bangladeshi community is very tight-knit. When leaders like Dipa hear that a woman in the community is being abused by her husband, she will mobilize other DRUM leaders to get involved. Leaders like Dipa have developed ways to address incidents of domestic violence without having to turn to the police.
When a local grocery store began treating its workers poorly in order to fire them, Dipa alerted DRUM about the situation. The business owner was intentionally giving working moms late-night shifts knowing they could not work at that time. Dipa and other DRUM leaders went to the business to speak to the owner, letting them know their unjust practices, while not yet illegal, were being tracked. Dipa then recruited 3 of the fired employees to become DRUM members and fight for increased worker protection so that business owners can no longer get away with these practices.
DRUM’s work is nothing without its members. Our members do this work on top of working long hours and caring for their families. The commitment of members like Dipa reminds us of what we need to build a better world. Even as this world continues to fail them. Dipa’s former landlord, Moshe Piller, is one of the worst landlords in the city – he was ranked 28 in the “worst landlord watchlist” in 2021. He’s accrued more than 1,900 violations across 15 buildings he owns throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. Dipa and her family are grateful to be alive because the smoke alarms in their building were not working. There was one person seriously injured because of their fire – that is the negligent landlord’s fault.
Dipa is currently commuting a total of three hours each day to take her 10-year-old son to and from school because their Manhattan hotel room is so far from his school in the Bronx. Navigating the maze of city bureaucracy is now more difficult than ever as Mayor Adams is walking back protections for undocumented immigrants.
The city filed a lawsuit against Moshe in 2022 but these weak lawsuits have done nothing for tenants like Dipa as she now needs to find a home and rebuild her entire life from scratch. This situation reminds us that we cannot expect the government to save us. We have to organize and demand better for our communities and ensure that leaders like Dipa can continue to play a leading role in fighting for a city that takes care of everyday New Yorkers. Please donate what you can so that Dipa can continue organizing for working-class New Yorkers including but not limited to Bangladeshi women.
Please note we are not using Dipa’s real name due to safety concerns around her immigration status.
Learn more about the fire: https://bronx.news12.com/fdny-1-seriously-injured-in-unionport-building-fire
Learn more about how DRUM members are fighting for women facing abuse: https://prismreports.org/2024/05/14/ending-gender-based-violence-building-beyond-prisons/
Learn more about what an evil landlord Moshe is:
Get involved with DRUM! Join us as a volunteer:
Secure jobs:
Unemployment bridge program:
DRUM- Desis Rising Up and Moving is a multigenerational, membership led organization of over 4000 low-wage South Asian and Indo-Caribbean immigrant workers and youth in New York City. Founded in 2000, DRUM has mobilized and built the leadership of thousands of low income, South Asian and Indo Caribbean immigrants to lead social and policy change that impacts their own lives- from immigrant rights to education reform, civil rights, and worker justice.
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DRUM - Desis Rising Up and Moving, Inc.
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