When Gauri Banerjee, President of Saheli asked  her friend Harvey Leonard of WCVB Boston and Bostonchannel.com to predict the weather on October 1st for  the Saheli walk for Domestic violence he asked her to go right ahead with the event.  In fact he predicted the weather so precisely that the rain held off  till the last walker came back.

More than 30 partipants walkers indeed turned up to support the Group. This is the second year that Saheli is holding this walk and Banerjee hopes to make it an annual feature. Participating in the walk were two men who came all the way from Walpole to show their support for the Saheli Men's Initiative. Says Banerjee, “The Men's Initiative is the message to men to get involved with Saheli to stop violence against women” Most of them sported such badges.Swapan Roy of Lexington sprinted  far ahead of other walkers. He came with his wife Lipika and other friends to support the cause.There were babies in strollers, women observing the fast for Durga Pooja, Navaratri and Ramadan. One mother came in lieu of her busy son who could not make it due to business travel.

Anne Marie Browne of the Police Department, a strong supporter of Saheli in the past was instrumental in organizing the logistics of the 5K walk.  The Burlington Police department joined and supervised the Walk and encouraged Saheli to expand the Walk to include all residents of Burlington, not just the South Asians. The Lahey Clinic's Domestic violence program sent its representative and is working with Saheli to include a larger population and get some funding for next year's Walk.

Saheli raised around $2000 with major donors who support and believe in Saheli's work. Among corporate donors were Lahey Clinic, Kashmir Restaurant, Dover Rug Company, David Ludwig, Harvard University and Rajat Banerjee of Cisco Networks.

Banerjee gave a heads up of some of the upcoming events at Saheli. “We have a very successful Computer Literacy program running in Central Square Cambridge.It resembles very much like  a United Nations with people from all over the world. We would like to highlight this program. The program runs Thursday nights 6-8 for twelve weeks September -December. It then runs for  12-weeks again in January - March".

If you are looking to be part of Saheli , there are many ways to volunteer.
The group is always looking for volunteers to teach classes, just 4-6 hours a month in Lowell (Sunday) and Cambridge (Thursday). Contact banerjee@emmanuel.edu if you want to teach. Saheli has an active internship program for college women, that give college credits and mentorship;  a domestic violence fund has been established  to help women in crises on an emergency basis. Many women live alone and isolated at home because their spouse has not paid telephone and TV -cable bills. Saheli collects cell phones to refurbish and distribute to women who have no access totelephones due to such financial and family domestic issues. Donate a used phone or a phone card; it will really help a deserving woman. Next phone drive is on Republic Day, January, in Burlington. And if you have something right now and want to help, send an mail to mhewett@wellesley.edu.

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