Founded in 1989 by a group of five New York City-based South Asian women, Sakhi, meaning “woman friend,” was created to break the silence around abuse in South Asian communities and serve survivors of violence.

Sakhi’s development of a faith-based initiative recognizes the deep spiritual and emotional impact of faith as a practice of survival and growth. In addition, Sakhi has come to recognize that survivors of violence often have specific needs around their faiths, such as seeking a religious divorce as part of the process of moving forward. Sakhi’s faith-based initiative is a landmark effort of furthering social justice and women’s rights work within immigrant communities through an important community lens—faith communities. Through concrete research, data recording, community collaboration and programming, Sakhi helps to foster innovative resources and dialogues that will fundamentally re-envision how the women’s movement and social justice efforts work with immigrant communities and faith institutions.