History

1992: SAHELI, meaning a female friend in Hindi, was founded as an informal support group for Asian women living in the Austin area. Through their discussions, they realized there was a need for an organization that focused on family violence among Asian immigrants.

1993: SAHELI's mission and confidential telephone help line were established.

1994: SAHELI became a 501(c)(3) organization. SAHELI operated as an all volunteer organization supported primarily by the community for twelve years.

2001: SAHELI started an AmeriCorps*VISTA program. With the help of full-time AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteers, and its capacity increased substantially over a period of three years.

2004: SAHELI was selected by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission's Family Violence Program to provide advocacy and community education as a Special Non-Residential Project. This award has made it possible to significantly expand SAHELI's programs, and this allowed for the introduction of two employees.

2004: SAHELI formalized the Survivor Advocacy and Empowerment Program, which provides direct services to Asian victims and the Community Education Program, which provides information on Domestic Violence Resources to the community and works with communities to mobilize against violence.

2005: SAHELI hired its first Executive Director to oversee agency operations.

2007: The agency added another employee to drive the Economic Empowerment Program to help clients achieve long-term self sufficiency after leaving an abusive home.  The program provides information and support for job training, housing education, and childcare.

2008: The System Advocacy Program was created to work with policy makers and institutions to ensure proper access to services for immigrant victims of domestic violence through proper policy implementation and procedures.

2009: The System Advocacy Program began its Limited English Proficiency initiative, which collaborates with law enforcement, judicial systems and other social service providers to provide proper language access to victims of domestic violence.  Also, SAHELI launched the 1000 Cranes Campaign to garner community support for programs and unveiled its annual fundraising event, Keep Austin Spicy: Asian Food and Culture Festival.

SAHELI has been recognized by the Texas Council on Family Violence, SafePlace, and The Political Asylum Project of Austin for its unique advocacy role, long-standing service, and commitment.

SAHELI continues to serve Austin and the surrounding communities and has had the ability to greatly expand its’ services to help the Pan-Asian community in general. Today, SAHELI represents six words that define our services: Support, Advocate, Heal, Empower, Listen, and Inform.

SAHELI would like to acknowledge the following individuals for making a strong commitment in combating domestic violence in the Asian Community:
Zarine Gautam, Veena Gondhalekar, Swadesh Mahajan, Monica Mehta, Nisha Merchant Goss, Mamata Misra, Anamita Mukherjee, Suman Olivelle, Chin-Long Shu, Bhamathi Sudarshan, Chandra Sudhakar, Kalpana Sutaria