Posts Under Newsletters Category
In January, we launched our first ever Youth Empowerment Program to provide a safe space for young South Asian women to talk about dating, healthy relationships, sexuality and violence in their lives. The work is led by Janai Smith, Sakhi’s Youth Advocate. The work is currently focused in the Queens community. Janai gathers interest among South Asian youth by conducting…
Earlier this month SALGA, a volunteer run organization dedicated to supporting the Queer Desi South Asian community in New York City held a unique event that created space for family members to talk about challenges in supporting and unconditionally loving their LGBTQ loved ones. We spoke to organizers Anjali Chaudhury and Sunil Oomen about the goals of this event. Can…
Building on our momentum from our successful Summit Preventing Violence, Promoting Justice (PVPJ) this past October, Sakhi hosted the first in a series of follow up gatherings. On March 23, 2012 in collaboration with the Barnard Center for Research on Women, we brought together New York City based anti-violence organizations to discuss local policy goals and develop a shared vision for an inclusive…
Sakhi Speaks at Civil Liberties & Public Policy – April 14 Continuing on our commitment to movement building, Sakhi’s Executive Director Tiloma Jayasinghe will speak at Civil Liberties and Public Policy’s (CLPP) 26th annual conference,“From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom.” Tiloma’s talk titled“Fighting Violence, Empowering Our Communities: Community-Based Approaches to Preventing Violence and Achieving…
Project Speak Out, Sakhi’s inter-agency, collaborative Queens Outreach Initiative, Project Speak Out has reached its one year mark. Two of Sakhi’s dedicated PSO volunteers were interviewed by the New York Non-Profit Press about what brings them to this work and what needs to be done. (excerpt) “I have always felt passionately about women’s rights and women’s issues,” says Maheen Nusrat…
Advocates Speak! VAWA: It is not just about reauthorization. It’s that time again, VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) reauthorization is up for vote. The Violence Against Women Act (commonly known as “VAWA”) is now in Congress for a full Senate vote which will determine whether to reauthorize federal funds that supports local domestic violence shelters and programs nationwide. VAWA is…
In her new book Outdated, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Sakhi Board member and Editor of Feministing.com, offers a personal account of what she calls a ‘feminist critique’ of dating and love in our world today. “I felt a tremendous frustration with what I felt were the dominant narratives about romance in the mainstream media. I really saw the book as an intervention….
Sakhi is engaged in an exciting new policy project to help empower survivors of economic violence achieve self-sufficiency, enable family stability and access to educational and professional opportunities. Sakhi recognized early on the close links between domestic violence and economic control and realized the need for services aimed at improving survivors’ economic opportunities and security. For survivors of domestic violence,…
On November 1st, Chhaya Community Development Corporation held a Town Hall in Queens to discuss and gather feedback about a planned South Asian Community Center. Sakhi, along with numerous other South Asian organizations, such as SAYA!, and Adhikaar, and local community members attended this meeting. Through a participatory process, Chhaya engaged with approximately 100 stakeholders in determining the greatest needs…
In the last few months, Occupy Wall Street has shown us that Americans have tapped into the global movement against negligent economic policies. Americans are fed up with the aggressive capitalism that is hurting the middle class and resting on the backs of the poor. Unjust economic policy is the cause of much of the violence and disruption…
