Reflecting on the NAPIESV ARP SA Grantees Gathering in Honolulu, Hawaii
In September 2024, Sahiyo U.S. had the privilege of attending an event in Honolulu, Hawaii, hosted by the National Organization of Asians and Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV) for grantees who had received funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to create culturally specific programming to address sexual assault in AAPINH (Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian) communities. The three-day event was significant for Sahiyo, allowing the U.S. team to reflect on its Activists Retreat program, which – thanks to this funding – has now trained over 100 activists to date. During the event, the team reflected on and shared key milestones, including hiring Community Engagement Coordinator Samman Masud, hosting its first in-person Activists Retreat since the Covid-19 pandemic, and launching its first-ever retreat to include individuals from Asian, Pacific Islander, and Southwest Asian/North African (API-SWANA) regions and communities in 2024. (To hear more about attendees’ experience at past retreats, click here). Connecting with fellow organizations, each with their own story and approach, offered new perspectives and insights into how Sahiyo U.S. can better support AAPINH survivors and continue to foster meaningful change. Sahiyo U.S. is looking forward to planning our third annual Activists Retreat under this grant in February of 2025. (If you’re interested in attending, click here). A heartfelt thank you to the local organizations, Olohana Foundation and Hawaii CASA for welcoming everyone so warmly, sharing invaluable insights, and highlighting the unique issues impacting communities in Hawaii. To learn more about our Activist Retreat program, watch the video below! [youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-sOB_fRe6A ]
A Plan in Action: Reflecting on the 2023 Peer-to-Peer National ARP Convening
By Umme Kulsoom Arif This past October, I had the privilege of traveling to Washington DC and meeting with Samman Masud, Sahiyo’s Community Engagement Coordinator. Both of us attended the 2023 Peer-to-Peer National American Rescue Plan (ARP) Convening as representatives of Sahiyo, one of over 40 non-profit organizations granted awards as part of the ARP Support for Survivors Program. Without hyperbole, it was magnificent. The work to end gender-based violence in our many communities is a monumental task. There are too many days where I think of it in the same way I think of Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill, only to have it roll back down the moment he gets close to completion — neverending. This frustration was echoed in the stories of hardship shared by representatives of the various non-profit organizations seeking to serve and support their communities. And yet, here we are. Pushing that boulder. Doing the work, because the work needs to be done. Culturally specific communities are just that — culturally specific, each one with unique traditions and unique needs. Over the course of the three day conference, speakers emphasized the need to invest in organizations that understand the communities they serve, in providing grassroots organizations the space and financial support they need to do the work that must be done. For Sahiyo, the ARP grant provides the opportunity to expand our annual Activists Retreat, that annual opportunity for survivors and activists to come together for community, companionship, and healing. These retreats serve as an essential part of Sahiyo’s activism—and our self-care. Activism, as I once emphasized before, is work. Occasionally lonely work, as one finds themselves at risk of being ostracized by their communities for speaking up and speaking out. In this way, the ARP grant allows Sahiyo the opportunity to empower survivors and activists by providing retreat attendees the space to talk about their experiences and the tools to educate, to have meaningful conversations in their communities. It is Sisyphean work sometimes — these conversations must happen more than once, the violence cannot be stopped in a single day. As we watch another khatna-related prosecution begin, this time in Texas, I wonder just how many volunteers and activists are waiting to see if the 2018 prosecution in Michigan will repeat itself? To me, the beauty of the 2023 ARP Convening was in the stories, both in sorrow and in triumph. Speakers from the Asian-Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, Ujima, National Organization of Asians and Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence, and the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center — as well as the sub-grantees of all of these organizations — spoke candidly of how they also struggled when trying to advocate for their communities, about the need for support from government grants that also allowed them to do the work in a manner that worked for them. Most critically, the speakers emphasized the need for advocates to work together to uplift and support other non-profit organizations. There is still a lot of work to be done to end gender-based violence, both in acknowledging its existence in various communities and in changing the cultural mores that perpetuate it. The hill we climb feels steep, but the boulder we push up that hill is not one we have to shoulder alone. I look forward to the day we best Sisyphus and crest that hill, for a future free from violence. If not for me, then for those who will live in the world I leave behind.