SAHARA’s Valley Office Presents 1st Annual Spring Affair
SAHARA held its first Spring Valley Mixer event April 14
By India West
STUDIO CITY, Calif., United States
The South Asian Helpline and Referral Agency, a Southern California-based non-profit organization working to stop domestic violence in the South Asian community, hosted its first Spring Valley Mixer event April 14 at the CBS Studios here.
The event focused on bringing together the South Asian community in the Valley area to raise awareness about the issue of domestic violence.
The evening began with a brief introduction by board member Reshma Block about SAHARA, its inception, and events that brought to light the need for organizations to exist.
She then introduced the SAHARA team, including president Rekha Bajaria and Dr. Seema Arora, a SAHARA board member who has been facilitating the Valley chapter for the past two years.
Arora talked about SAHARA’s work and new developments that had occurred over the past year with their efforts to expand SAHARA’s reach to the Valley area. The Indian American activist also shed light on the uncertainty but also the strength of the survivors of domestic violence.
Anjali Sood, a volunteer social worker at SAHARA, reminded the attendees that “domestic violence is not a private issue; it is a silent epidemic because people are embarrassed to talk about it.”
The presentation was followed by a video of a DV survivor who shared her story in the hope that she could encourage survivors to speak out against domestic violence in order to help themselves and the women around them.
Renu Chopra, the community outreach coordinator at the Valley chapter, encouraged people to join hands and challenged the attendees in supporting the critical work of engaging community members to end domestic violence.
Read more at www.indiawest.com