Remarkable organization flourishes in New York to help abused women
I attended a benefit last Saturday evening in New York organized by Sakhi, a remarkable nonprofit organization that assists battered and abused women of South Asian origin. The venue was the cavernous SkyLight Lounge in SoHo, and it was elegantly done up. Instead of a typical fundraising dinner where people are required to sit at pre-assigned tables, there was open seating -- on diwans and couches -- so that people could help themselves from an assortment of buffet tables, and then circulate as they wished. I thought that this was a smart way to get people to meet one another and network. Names of key benefactors, as well as Sakhi staff members were periodically projected on walls. The lighting was soft, and there were several vocal and instrumental performances by performers such as Christine Correa, John Hebert, Parul Shah, Karsh Kale, Falu, and Ravish Momin.
The imaginatively conceived evening started off with a nice, persuasive introduction by Sakhi's board chair, Roopa Unnikrishnan, a top executive at Pfizer, and an authority on the outsourcing business. Among the co-chairs for the evening were Seran Trehan and Kelly Tagore, both dynamic women with a flair for spreading good will and enlisting people for a good cause. Sakhi is certainly an organization that has drawn the support of a large number of New Yorkers and others, and it is bound to grow in its usefulness and strength.