Our plans are to create improved systems to work with an increased number of staff members, some are new. We shall do outreach to 30 towns and cities starting on July 15th. reach out to courts, police, school departments, hospitals and others, sharing information about our South Asian language skills, crisis management programs and financial aid to families in distress. Advocates will travel to many agencies across Metro Boston making presentations about Saheli and offering its free services to South Asians, wherever in Massachusetts they may live.

What are your biggest challenges?

Raising funds from foundations and the community, maintaining a well trained volunteer base where people have multiple language skills, and keeping the community constantly engaged and informed about our work.

How can the community help ?

The state contract covers salaries for a few members of the staff. It does not cover financial aid to families in crisis, educational funds to build women's employment skills, rental fees for our small office in Burlington, maintaining the 24 x 7 bilingual helpline, or assistance to accompany women to police and court hearings and manage crisis.

Over half of our work is still done by volunteers - a volunteer Executive Director, Executive Board, and Advisory Committee (Trustees). Most people are very busy, and it is the generosity, kindness and compassion of a few community members that has allowed Saheli to grow into a well know and respected community based organization. We thank our leaders. However, it is increasingly difficult to manage a growing organization with volunteers, especially because there are several mandates required by the state for working with vulnerable children, girls and women.

We are working very hard to raise $100,000 to appoint a skilled executive director who can manage Saheli's operations and staff at a consistently high level of productivity. A volunteer manager and executive board is no longer a viable option to manage an agency that provides daily services to survivors of violence. All mainstream domestic violence agencies have an ED and a established staff, and Saheli after 21 years of hard work has still not raised enough funds to appoint an ED.

We invite our community to support South Asian women and children who are trying to deal with domestic violence, help Saheli to assist during a family crisis, build their resiliency with personal and skilled counseling. Saheli's vision is a community free of family violence and abuse. We invite your support to create a strong, vibrant South Asian community in the future, free of crime, alcoholism, drug addiction and unemployment.

Any other special message for our readers.

Please support Saheli's fundraiser NIRBHAYA to be held on December 8th, 2017 at the Woburn Hilton Hotel. This fundraiser, held every other year, is a major source of funding for Saheli's critical work in the South Asian community.

If you are a successful entrepreneur and can sponsor our event with a donation, we would love to hear from you. If you believe that South Asian women and children need to be safe and healthy in their homes, please buy tickets to the event, purchase a table and bring friends and family. If you would like to donate a service at the event, please be in touch with us. We can be reached at info@sahehliboston.org and are waiting to hear back from you. Thank you.