Sakhi for South Asian Women exists to end violence against women. They unite survivors, communities, and institutions to eradicate domestic violence as we work together to create strong and healthy communities. Sakhi uses an integrated approach that combines support and empowerment through service delivery, community engagement, advocacy, and policy initiatives.
Founded in 1989 by a group of five South Asian women – Anannya Bhattacharjee, Mallika Dutt, Tula Goenka, Geetanjali Misra, and Romita Shetty – who were from diverse professional fields such as banking, film, law, and public health, Sakhi, meaning “woman friend,” was created to fill a critical need — in spite of an abundance of religious and cultural centers, professional associations, and ethnic-specific groups within New York’s large South Asian immigrant population, there was no place for women to address the silenced subject of domestic violence.
Through Sakhi’s efforts to serve survivors and mobilize community members to condemn abuse, Sakhi has changed the conversation on domestic violence in the community. Margaret Abraham, author of Speaking the Unspeakable: Marital Violence Among South Asian Immigrants in the United States, noted, “What Sakhi did was bring together issues around ethnicity and gender, which were previously not discussed in our communities. They shifted domestic violence from a private family problem to a public social issue.”
Sakhi structured its programming to follow a two-pronged approach in addressing domestic violence within the South Asian community:
- Create a safe place with a full range of culturally-sensitive, language-specific information, support, services, and advocacy for South Asian women facing abuse in their lives
- Work to inform, actively engage, and mobilize the South Asian community in the movement to end violence against women forever.
Population of Focus: Immigrants, Asian Americans
Links to Resource:
- Learn more about Sakhi on their website
- View Domestic Violence Services Sakhi offers. 2 in 5 South Asian immigrant women in the U.S. are survivors of domestic violence, and Sakhi provides a full range of culturally-sensitive, linguistically-appropriate services.
- Learn about Sakhi’s Immigration and Civic Integration Program
- Read about Sakhi’s Youth Empowerment (YE) Program to disrupt the cycle of inter-generational gender-based discrimination to empower and work with girls to promote gender equity and help eliminate their vulnerability to violence.
- Other services include: Women’s Health Initiative, Sexual Assault Services, Reproductive Justice, and Outreach
- Sakhi also provides Resources about domestic violence and the resources available to survivors.
- View a list of South Asian Women’s Organizations in the U.S.
Date: 2017