Our History

Sakhi, the second South Asian women’s organization in the U.S., is founded to promote women’s rights by offering services and facilitating community education. Volunteers meet in schools and learn how to serve orders of protection.

Sakhi conducts its first awareness-raising tabling event in Jackson Heights, Queens as part of International Women’s Day and marches and leaflets at the India Independence Day Parade for the first time.

Sakhi hosts its first community fundraising dinner and marches in the Pakistan Independence Day Parade as the first women’s organization to participate in this community event.

Sakhi premieres its Film Festival of women directors from South Asia, a unique venue which brought powerful South Asian women’s films and films about South Asian women to the New York City public for four years in a row.

Sakhi and Manavi organize the first South Asian women’s conference in the United States at Columbia University.

Sakhi challenges the status quo by ensuring immigrant women can self-petition for green cards under the Violence Against Women Act and by marching with the South Asian Lesbian & Gay Association (SALGA) at the India Day Parade.

Sakhi also launches its first series of ESL classes for survivors.

Sakhi helps stage the first public memorial– “Break the Silence” with artist Margot Lovejoy at the Queens Museum of Art– to heal the wounds of domestic violence.

Sakhi organizes a public demonstration in front of the home of Mohammed Mohsin, who was charged with attempted murder and arson against his wife, Syeda.

1997: Sakhi staff attend national meeting hosted by the Center for Third World Organizing in order to develop strategies for recently-launched Court Interpreter Campaign. Sakhi spins Domestic Workers’ Committee off into an autonomous organization, which then becomes Workers’ Awaaz, a subset of which becomes Andolan.

Sakhi participates in the first March Against Violence in Jackson Heights, Queens, organized to open space for women to speak out within the community.

The Women’s Health Initiative is formed to provide health access to survivors and to educate providers on abuse. Sakhi helps to launch the national South Asian Coalition Against Violence listserv in collaboration with partners in the anti-violence movement.

The first book on domestic violence in the South Asian immigrant community in the United States, “Speaking the Unspeakable,” is published by action researcher and long-time Sakhi supporter Dr. Margaret Abraham.

Sakhi organizes peace rallies in the wake of September 11th to respond to the backlash against South Asians and Muslims. Sakhi also hosts its first annual gala event.

In memory of a beloved volunteer who passed away in the 9/11 attacks, Sakhi volunteers launch the Swarna Chalasani Economic Empowerment Fund to offer grants to survivors seeking education and career opportunities.

Three South Asian court interpreters are hired as court employees by the Office of Court Administration due to Sakhi’s Court Interpreter Campaign.

Sakhi presents at the first national conference hosted by the Department of Justice on the challenges Limited English Proficiency individuals face when seeking justice at the local, state, and federal court levels.

Sakhi organizes the first South Asian community mela in Richmond Hill, Queens, attended by 750 community members and 40 community-based organizations.

Sakhi testifies at a state assembly hearing on suicide amongst Asian women, a forum covered in the New York Times.

Sakhi mobilizes for a landmark New York court rule that obligates courts to ensure interpreter for civil and criminal cases with a limited English proficient party. Sakhi hosts first ever national convention, “Preventing Violence, Promoting Justice,” to build a holistic and intersectional domestic violence movement.

Sakhi organizes the exhibit “Redrawing Resistance,” displayed at the Queens Museum of Art.

Sakhi also holds two focus groups with survivors to collect data on their religious and spiritual experiences while confronting domestic violence. Prior to this, no such data collection project with South Asian survivors had ever been undertaken.

Sakhi releases a national survey on court interpretation and language barriers.

Sakhi co-hosts an Arts & Empowerment workshop series in Richmond Hill and is featured on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show as an expert to discuss gender-based asylum.

Sakhi joins the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence’s Family Justice Center in Queens.

Sakhi hosts its first-ever national convening in October, “Preventing Violence, Promoting Justice” bringing together activists, academics, and advocates from a range of social justice movements to build and brainstorm of a more intersectional and holistic domestic violence movement.

Sakhi’s Board is honored as runner up to the Brooke Mahoney board governance award. Sakhi becomes a partner agency of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence Family Justice Center in Brooklyn.

Sakhi co-authors a policy report on economic violence with the Manhattan Borough President–“Economic Abuse: The Untold Cost of Domestic Violence”– documenting the prevalence of economic abuse amongst survivors of domestic violence.

Sakhi organizes a vigil in Manhattan’s Union Square Park to memorialize Jyoti Singh Pandey who was raped and murdered in New Delhi, India, and to raise awareness about gender-based violence across the world. Sakhi is also invited to the White House for President Obama’s signing of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Sakhi becomes a partner agency of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence Family Justice Center in Manhattan.

Sakhi launches its Sexual Assault Program for South Asian survivors in New York City.

Sakhi launches its Youth Empowerment Program for survivors starting from the age of six years old.

Sakhi receives funding to hire its first full-time Mental Health Counselor.

Sakhi organizes rallies and workshops in support of survivors seeking asylum after Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision to roll back protections. Sakhi partners with other SAWOs (South Asian Women’s Organizations) to create two different joint press release statements in support of Stacey Singh and the reauthorization of VAWA.

Sakhi celebrates its 30-year anniversary and publishes its Strategic Plan. Sakhi launches the Transitional Housing & Food Justice Programs.

Sakhi also wins Participatory Budgeting award from District 39.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sakhi begins offering all programs remotely with no interruption in services.

Sakhi expands its Food Justice and Solidarity Grant programs. Sakhi distributes 16,000 pounds of food over 1,500 deliveries to 170 individual households. Sakhi also makes $130,000 in emergency grants to 112 survivors for items such as phone bills, sanitary products, medication, and diapers.

Sakhi opens a second office in order to provide comprehensive programming in Queens, home to the highest concentration of South Asians in the United States.

Sakhi helps secure $13.5M in state funding for AAPI organizations in New York.

Anti-Violence Program Manager, Shyda Rashid, represents Sakhi within the Tahirih Justice Center’s national Forced Marriage Working Group.

Sakhi’s first Helpline and Volunteer Manager launches an expansion of Sakhi’s helpline for survivors, nearly doubling its hours of operation.

Sakhi receives its largest gift to date: a $3MM investment in Sakhi by the Bhatia Family Foundation to launch The Ramesh and Kalpana Bhatia Family Foundation’s South Asian Safe Families Initiative.