Saheli has elected six new South Asian community members to its Board of Directors. “We welcome these skilled women and men to the Saheli Board and look forward to working with them to make the lives of women and girls safe and healthy,” commented Gouri Banerjee, Ph. D. President of the Board 2017-2019.

New Board Members include:

Ms. Pooja Bakai of Somerville

They join the existing Board members: Ms. Gouri Banerjee of Winchester, Ms. Tanvi Devimane of Sudbury, Mr. Pradip Tandon of Norfolk, and Ms. Usha Vakil of Hingham.

Saheli thanks community leaders—Dr. Kaplesh Kumar (chair of the committee and Past President Of IAGB who inspired the establishment of Saheli in 1996), Ms. Neelam Wali (of Saheli’s Advisory Committee and Lifelong Friend and Supporter) and Dr. Anil Saigal (Member of the Mass. Asian Commission and Friend and Supporter of Saheli) for serving as our election commissioners.

This Board will develop innovative programs to prevent violence against women and empower families with services identified in a recent need assessment in the community. They hope to strengthen Saheli’s financial status using new fund raising strategies and build relationships with community and domestic violence agencies across the state of Massachusetts.

Saheli has completed twenty-one years of service to a large and rapidly growing South Asian community with its client base growing 15% each year. This year, Saheli seeks an executive director to manage the organization and welcomes letters of interest sent to info@saheliboston.org. While knowledge of a South Asian language is desirable, it is not a requirement.

Saheli also seeks increased participation from members of the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Nepali and Sri Lankan communities to work cooperatively to help South Asian families in crisis. Saheli offers financial aid to South Asian women and girls who seek to build skills and education to be employed and encourages women to join Saheli’s adult literacy classes, support groups, and volunteer opportunities. In 2016 women from Nepal, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh received financial aid from Saheli. We hope you will join us. Please see our website: www.saheliboston.org and write to us at info@saheliboston.org. 

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