Sakhi for South Asian Women is an anti-domestic violence organization that works with the South Asian community in the New York metropolitan area.
The organization was founded in 1989 by a group of five South Asian women from diverse professional fields such as banking, film, law, and public health. Sakhi, which means “woman friend,” was created to enable women to address domestic violence within the South Asian community.
Mission and Organization
The stated mission of Sakhi for South Asian Women is to end domestic violence against women by uniting survivors, communities, and institutions. Sakhi uses an integrated approach that combines support and empowerment through service delivery, community engagement, media advocacy, and policy initiatives.
Since its inception in 1989, Sakhi has served as a safe conduit to provide South Asian women with ongoing emotional support, culturally-sensitive and language-specific assistance in order to face the violence in their lives. Sakhi has also been at the forefront of the effort to end domestic violence through community engagement, education, and outreach as well as broad policy and institutional change.
In the direct services arena, Sakhi offers:
Crisis response for more than 700 new requests a year, including safety planning and an initial intake process with trained, multilingual staff who speak four major South Asian languages.
Case management that encompasses translation services, accompaniments to courts, public benefits offices, health care visits, referrals for health, housing, legal assistance, and job training & placement.
Unique programs developed and tailored in-house to address survivors’ needs, including monthly support groups, computer classes, financial literacy workshops, and grants for educational advancement.
In the area of community engagement and media advocacy, Sakhi undertakes:
Presentations and expert testimony, leading the discussion on domestic violence in three dozen different venues locally and nationally in 2008.
Creation of innovative media products, including short films, a public service announcement, an award-winning website, and a digital monthly newsletter.
Community campaigns to end violence including a neighborhood-based community action project in Richmond Hills, Queens, and a Faith-Based Initiative focused on documentation of survivors’ thoughts on faith and cultivation of partnerships with faith communities and leaders.
A multi-faceted volunteer program that invites and encourages broad-based community participation in creating safe homes and strong communities: in 2008, 70 interns and volunteers collectively donated an 1-year and 7 months of time to advance Sakhi’s programs to end violence.
In the sphere of policy advocacy, Sakhi conducts:
A groundbreaking legal access campaign to enhance court interpretation: via innovative research, presentations, and coalition-building, Sakhi has mobilized concrete changes in New York State courts including enhanced interpreter testing and training procedures as well as a landmark court rule providing access to an interpreter in civil and criminal cases; and,
Mental health advocacy involving research and presentations on the link between mental health and domestic violence as well as expert testimony on the relationship between suicide and domestic violence.
