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 ]
Sahiyo U.S. Joins Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds in 15.8M Initiative to address systemic barriers to health
A Collaborative Effort to Address Female Genital Cutting and Advance Racial and Health Equity [Cambridge, MA, September 23, 2024] The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has announced the 2024 awards of the Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds (the Funds). As part of these awards, DPH, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA), and the implementing partner Health Resources in Action, Inc., will join with Sahiyo U.S. and 26 other organizations across Massachusetts and more than 40 of their community partners, including non-profit community-based organizations, municipalities, and coalitions. All of these organizations, including Sahiyo U.S. have committed to leading efforts to address the root causes of health inequities by disrupting systemic barriers to health and tackling institutional and structural racism head-on. During the pandemic, the need to support such efforts is even more imperative. In total ~$15.8M in grants will support 26 lead organizations and more than 40 of their partner organizations implementing strategies, ultimately impacting 458 cities and towns across the state. Sahiyo U.S. has partnered with the U.S. End FGM/C Network and UMass Chan Medical School Collaborative in Health Equity to develop systems of care and response for the prevention of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and support for survivors in Massachusetts. Sahiyo U.S. Co-Founder and Executive Director, Mariya Taher, expresses her excitement about this initiative and the work ahead, “FGM/C is such an unaddressed issue in Massachusetts, let alone the United States. We’re excited about this project, because the funding allows us to really address this issue by providing us the capacity and time to gather those who are impacted by FGM/C and/or who work with impacted communities throughout the state and create a real community-based solution on how to address this topic, and how we can build a collaborative approach to both support survivors and work towards prevention of FGM/C amongst future generations. The goal of The Funds is to work with community partners to disrupt barriers to health, increase awareness, and address the impact of structural racism on population health, and create long-term, meaningful changes in population health outcomes. The Funds invest in initiatives in three core areas of focus including: Working on long-lasting, community-driven policy, systems, and environmental changes that will make it easier to lead healthy lives and which will reduce health inequities such as racial patterns of segregation in communities and a lack of affordable housing production; Organizing and coordinating Community Health Improvement Planning efforts which convene multi-sector partnerships to collectively set and address community health goals, and; Working to address policies and systems that increase opportunities for healthy aging. Recognizing the complex ways in which systems impact health, the investments will support a wide range of activities across the Commonwealth. Sahiyo U.S. aims to build a comprehensive network of stakeholders and service providers to implement a coordinated, systems-based approach to address how FGM/C is treated in Massachusetts; facilitate equitable access to healing and improve health outcomes for survivors of FGM/C, with a special focus on people of color; and prevent FGM/C among future generations by increasing resources to disrupt barriers such as lack of awareness among service providers regarding FGM/C and connected social issues. U.S. End FGM/C Network Executive Director, Caitlin LeMay shares, “This is an opportunity to engage in longer-term, intentional, cross-sectoral systems change that will directly reduce health inequities for survivors of FGM/C in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the very state where I call home. Being able to approach this work through various systems and different strategies, including healthcare provider training, policy advocacy, coalition building, increasing service delivery, and more, is really exciting.” The Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds were created in January 2017 when DPH completed a landmark revision of its Determination of Need (DoN) regulation, which authorized the creation of these Funds. DPH provides overall guidance to the Funds and Health Resources in Action, Inc. acts as a fiduciary and implementing partner. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) partners with DPH to support the Healthy Aging Fund. More information about the Funds can be found at https://mahealthfunds.org/.
Sahiyo receives grant from Ben & Jerry’s Foundation
Sahiyo U.S. would like to thank our friends at Ben & Jerry’s Foundation for a core support grant award of $20,000 per year for two years. Ben & Jerry’s Foundation supports grassroots groups throughout the U.S. and its territories that are led by the people most impacted by the legacies of white supremacy culture, as they organize for racial equity and social and environmental justice. They center the leadership and collective action of Black communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color in their efforts to build movements to dismantle oppressive and discriminatory systems toward a more just and inclusive world. These funds will help Sahiyo specifically by strengthening the network of community-based anti-female genital cutting (FGC) advocates leading prevention and policy campaigns in the movement to end FGC in the U.S.; continuing to build FGC survivor and community-driven state coalitions who advocate for policy in states that don’t yet have laws to address FGC; and expanding on our original Critical Intersections work, forming partnerships with allied social justice movements and working together to build more comprehensive and inclusive systems of care and support for FGC survivors and/or those at risk of FGC. We are truly grateful for the support!
Sahiyo receives grant from South Asian Bar Association of North America
Sahiyo U.S. would like to thank our friends at the South Asian Bar Association (SABA) of North America Foundation for a core support grant award of $6,500. The SABA Foundation supports access to justice for South Asian communities in North America and advances causes important to the communities they serve. They fund work related to domestic violence intervention; immigration rights; prevention of and support for victims of hate crimes, discrimination and racial profiling; and other community access to justice issues. These funds will help Sahiyo specifically by expanding our Community Outreach and Education program, which trains health care providers, government officials, law enforcement, social services, and other community based organizations on ways to support female genital cutting (FGC) survivors; planning for our next annual Activists Retreat, where we train advocates to continue their work raising awareness against FGC; providing organizing power to FGC survivors in states that don’t yet have policy against FGC; and conducting valuable research investigating the needs of FGC survivors and the intersections of FGC and other oppressions, such as discrimination based on race, gender, religion, sexuality, and diverse migrant experiences.
SAHIYO JOINS OVER 40 COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS SERVING SEXUAL ASSAULT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS IN $13.2 MILLION AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN INITIATIVE
ARP Support for Survivors Program supports culturally-specific, community-based projects supporting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault from Asian and Pacific Islander Communities in the United States and the Pacific. Sahiyo U.S. will be joining over 40 organizations, both nationally and locally, in an effort to provide culturally-specific, community-based support for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault from Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities across the U.S. and Pacific. The $13.2 million dollar initiative from the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) under the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) will be will be the first time API-GBV will be distributing two years of funding to culturally specific organizations that serve sexual assault and domestic violence survivors in AAPI communities; this includes survivors of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), marking huge progress that this harmful practice is being recognized as a form of sexual assault. Under the ARP Support for Survivors Program, subgrants will be distributed through the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Capacity Building Fund to assist organizations like Sahiyo U.S. to provide services for survivors of gender-based violence in Asian/Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI), and Middle Eastern (ME) communities in the United States and U.S. territories. “Sahiyo U.S. is honored to be included as one of the 40+ organizations awarded this grant. For too long the issue of female genital cutting has been viewed as a cultural issue, this grant helps to affirm that FGM/C is a form of gender-based violence and is a form of sexual assault that impacts individuals from AAPI communities as well. For years, Sahiyo has heard stories from FGM/C survivors from these communities and we have sought to support them in sharing their experiences and connecting with one another to collectively heal, and band together to prevent the next generation from undergoing this form of harm.” ~ Mariya Taher, Sahiyo Co-Founder & U.S. Executive Director The ARP Support for Survivors Program will address the emergent needs of survivors, and the programs that serve them, resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency. The work will also promote strategic partnership development and collaboration in responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency on survivors of gender-based violence. “API-GBV is honored and proud to welcome organizations like Sahiyo U.S. who are at the forefront of sexual assault and dometic violence work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential to have this kind of funding distributed to communities with organizations deeply rooted in their environmental and cultural awareness and expertise in supporting survivors. The AAPI community is often left out of the public narrative on sexual assault and domestic violence and through this important work we will have the opportunity to support organizations who directly support survivors in our communities.” ~ Monica Khant, Executive Director of API-GBV Sahiyo U.S. was selected by a committee of peer reviewers with extensive experience in the domestic violence and sexual assault fields, and working in AANHPI and ME communities in the U.S. Funding provided under the ARP Support for Survivors grant will advance our survivor and community-based Activists Retreat program. The expanded program will help to further strengthen relationships and networks among survivors and impacted community members who need a supportive structure, but who are often geographically distant from one another. The program will also allow for best practices and tools to be shared not only during the workshops, but throughout the year. As a result, FGM/C survivors and impacted community members are able to enhance their own well-being and enhance skills to more effectively raise awareness in their respective communities about the need to end this harmful form of sexual assault. Sahiyo U.S. is among 15 organizations serving AANHPI communities and 14 organizations serving ME communities, including projects focused on prevention, culturally specific services for Queer and Trans survivors, virtual services and data security, culturally rooted practices in healing and resiliency, and engaging men and youth. For a complete list of grantees, visit this link.
Sahiyo convenes with other OVC grantees in Washington, DC
In 2020 and 2021, the Department of Justice – Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) awarded grants to organizations across the U.S. who deliver community-based programming to end FGC. The goal of this grant was to encourage educating communities and forming community networks of agencies and organizations that were positioned to identify those at risk and respond to survivors. Sahyo, in partnership with Asian Women’s Shelter (AWS) and StoryCenter, was awarded one of these three-year grants. At the end of January 2023, Sahiyo U.S.attended the OVC grantee convening in Washington DC. Over the course of the two-day gathering, participants were able to network, discuss challenges and opportunities in their work with FGC survivors, and build strategies and skills to take back and implement in their programming. During the event, Sahiyo’s Executive Director Mariya Taher facilitated two workshops, the first around strategies to build survivor engagement in programming, and the second looking at effective solutions to encourage male engagement in the work to end FGC. To learn more about Sahiyo’s work with AWS, visit our Technical Assistance page.
Sahiyo wins grant from Peace Development Fund
Sahiyo U.S. would like to thank our friends at the Peace Development Fund for a core support grant award of $5,000.00. The Peace Development Fund supports organizations who are working to shift power, build a movement, dismantle oppression, and create new structures. This grant, from their Community Organizing Grants Fund, is made possible by hundreds of donors across the country who believe in investing in grassroots community organizations such as Sahiyo U.S. These funds will help Sahiyo specifically by expanding our Community Outreach and Education Program, which trains health care providers, government officials, law enforcement, social services, and other community based organizations on ways to support female genital cutting (FGC) survivors; planning for our next Annual Activist Retreat, where we train advocates to continue their work raising awareness against FGC; and conducting valuable research investigating the needs of FGC survivors and the intersections of FGC and other oppressions, such as discrimination based on race, gender, religion, sexuality, and diverse migrant experiences.
Joanna Vergoth chosen as 2021 CRAVE Foundation for Women honoree
We are proud to announce that Sahiyo U.S. Advisory Board Member Joanna Vergoth, LCSW, NCPsyA, was chosen as a 2021 CRAVE Foundation for Women grant recipient. She is a psychotherapist, specializing in trauma and was choosen as a recipient for her committed activism of over 20 years in helping those impacted by Female Genital Cutting (FGC). The CRAVE Foundation for Women was established to support individuals working towards creating a world where pleasure is a universal human right. Read more about Joanna’s work here.