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April 2011 SAHELI-BOSTON NEWS UPDATE
Spring is around the corner and we hope you are looking forward to bright, sunny, skies, flowers and warm beach weather. Its been busy at Saheli headquarters!! Here are some highlights of what Saheli, Support and Friendship for South Asian Families, Boston, has been doing in the community.
Update on Services Delivered by Saheli
- Saheli assisted a domestic abuse client to file for an immigrant visa under Violence Against Women Act. The happy woman now has a green card after 34 months of waiting. The process was a collaborative effort between Saheli, Greater Boston Legal Services and generous pro bono work from Healy, Fiske, Richmond and Matthew.
- Saheli free computer classes, Wednesday 6-8 pm resumed in Waltham Public Library for spring session under the guidance of a dedicated volunteer team.
- Saheli Fall Fundraising team started meetings to plan a grand fall gala event.
- Saheli Salita Mehta and Simmon's College intern Nahid Abhar published a resource book funded by CHNA15.org for women facing domestic violence. The Free book is available to any women, write to sahelihelp@gmail.com.
- Saheli presented the results of a health survey conducted in the community. The survey measured the level of satisfaction with doctor-patient relationships in the South Asian community.
Update on Meetings and Workshops
- Saheli Board of Directors participated in a "Capacity Building" day-long workshop by Maneesha Kelkar of Manavi, NJ on April 2.
- Saheli's health symposium entitled Managing Diabetes & Eating Healthy on March 26th at the Desai Foundation Headquarters in Burlington was attended by many people. The keynote speaker was Sangeeta Pradhan. Other speakers included Mr. Samir Desai, Mr. Girish Mehta, Mrs. Salita Mehta, Nahid Abhar, Elyse Whitehead and Gouri Banerjee of Saheli.. The symposium moderators were Manju Sheth MD, Imane, and Lija Joseph, MD, Saheli. A healthy, complimentary lunch was provided by Saheli to all attendees.
- A large group gathered at the Holi Mela at Intel to celebrate Holi. Saheli, Samantika Subramaniam made a presentation about Saheli at the Mela.Saheli supporters at Intel raised funds at the mela for the organization.
- Boston College South Asian Students supports the work of Saheli and made a generous donation to Saheli from their Annual Cultural Event. Saheli Gouri Banerjee was invited to talk about "Thinking about Arranged Marriages: Second Generation South Asians."
- Emmanuel College Student Organization ACCENT displayed a poster of Saheli's contributions to the South Asian Community on March 31.
- Saheli-Shrewsbury organized an educational presentation for the community called "Women, Wealth and Wisdom," a talk by Nila Rakhit on March 6th at Shrewsbury Public Library.
- Saheli's New 11-member Advisory Board met to strategize and make a plan of action for 2011 at Burlington Public Library in January. The Advisory Board serves for two years and contributes expertise in fund-raising, donor outreach, legal and medical issues.
- Saheli, Meena Hewett participated on a Domestic Violence panel at ICB-Wayland on March 26th. Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership against Domestic Violence organized the event.
Coming Up Very Soon in the Community
- Saheli Support Group resumes at the Burlington Public Library starting April 20th. The topic of discussion at the first spring meeting is ,"Spring Ahead your life".
- Supplementing education for High School Children,Talk by Buddhinath and Kalyani Padhy on April 16th at the Shrewsbury Library from 2-4pm.
- "Financial Literacy for South Asian families" at Burlington Senior Center on April 20th from 12-1:30 PM . Workshop issupported by a grant from the Lahey Clinic Community Based Initiatives.
- Apeksha Naidu, a new Saheli volunteer, asks you "Which notable woman has inspired you greatly?" on the occasion of International Women's Day and Women's History Month. She is on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SaheliBoston/310008826821
- May 14th, 3-4 pm " Farewell to Drs. Anita Raj and Jay Silverman, past board members who are moving to California", Burlington Public Library.
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