Fast-a-thon is an annual interfaith campaign hosted by the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at New York University, built around the idea of fasting to raise awareness and fundraise for an important cause. This year marks the 15th year that NYU is taking part in Fast-a-Thon. This year Sakhi For South Asian Women will be teaming with the NYU MSA, to raise funds in order to support women that have experienced domestic violence. This year, the Fast-a-Thon team has a goal of reaching $30,000.

Sakhi for South Asian Women exists to end violence against women. We unite survivors, communities, and institutions to eradicate domestic violence as we work together to create strong and healthy communities. Sakhi uses an integrated approach that combines support and empowerment through service delivery, community engagement, advocacy, and policy initiatives.

Founded in 1989 by a group of five South Asian women – Anannya Bhattacharjee, Mallika Dutt, Tula Goenka, Geetanjali Misra, and Romita Shetty – who were from diverse professional fields such as banking, film, law, and public health, Sakhi, meaning “woman friend,” was created to fill a critical need — in spite of an abundance of religious and cultural centers, professional associations, and ethnic-specific groups within New York’s large South Asian immigrant population, there was no place for women to address the silenced subject of domestic violence. Through Sakhi’s efforts to serve survivors and mobilize community members to condemn abuse, Sakhi has changed the conversation on domestic violence in our community. Margaret Abraham, author of Speaking the Unspeakable: Marital Violence Among South Asian Immigrants in the United States, has noted, “What Sakhi did was bring together issues around ethnicity and gender, which were previously not discussed in our communities. They shifted domestic violence from a private family problem to a public social issue.”

Sakhi structured its programming to follow a two-pronged approach in addressing domestic violence within the South Asian community: We create a safe place with a full range of culturally-sensitive, language-specific information, support, services, and advocacy for South Asian women facing abuse in their lives; and, We work to inform, actively engage, and mobilize the South Asian community in the movement to end violence against women forever.

Since the funds will directly impact these women, we're trying to raise as much as we possibly can leading up to the event. We have broken our goal in the past because of individuals who donated generously. Let’s shatter our goal by uniting for people in need.

SAKHI FOR SOUTH ASIAN WOMEN

Uniting survivors, communities, and institutions to eradicate domestic violence & form healthy communities.

Fundraising Campaigns

Support Sakhi This Holiday Season

Friends for Sakhi

Support Sakhi Through NYU's Fast-A-Thon 2016!

Sakhi NY Central Park 10K