Between Friends
Maitri's Quarterly Newsletter

Volume 14, Issue 1

Dear Supporter,

We present our Newsletter, another endeavor to reach out into our community to tell you about what is going on at Maitri. We sincerely hope that this will provide a new platform where we can dream, hope, act and celebrate together.

As with all our other efforts, this is work in progress and so, your comments and thoughts are welcome. Please write back to us at outreach@maitri.org

Meet a Maitri Volunteer

Volunteers are Maitri's back bone. This section will feature the profile and thoughts of one volunteer every issue- to know them and to be inspired

Priya Sekhar
"Maitri gives back so much"

Priya has a background in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Though initially interested in Juvenile Delinquency, she started working with local shelters, due to her interest in tracing its cause, which first exposed her to Domestic Violence issues.

After moving to the Bay Area, her search of local shelters ultimately led her to Maitri and perked her interest as Maitri works with the South Asian community. After joining Maitri in June 1999, Priya has never looked back, carving a niche for herself in Maitri and becoming an indispensable asset.

So what drives her on at Maitri? "Putting clients first- I have the privilege of working with a group of women and an organization whose primary mission is so client centered. It is such an empowering and positive feeling for me to work together with other volunteers in helping our clients." She finds the synergy of working with Maitri's team amazing, and attending Maitri's volunteer meetings empowering.

If you are thinking of volunteering, these are her words for you- "If you have passion and the need to give, Maitri will find a way to fulfill the need. Take time to understand what your passion is, it may be outreach, working with clients or anything else; take time to explore which aspect of Maitri's work you like, carve a niche there for yourself, be proactive, come to meetings, get a Maitri volunteer mentor to work with and in time you will understand how vital and wonderful the work is that we all do at Maitri."

When we asked her what she considered her successes at Maitri, she says "After seeing many clients over the years, if a client is able to focus not on her past but on her future, goes through the worst but plans how to get to a better place, that gives me a lot of satisfaction." But, these words would probably be the best measure of Priya's success: "I walk away from each client with the belief that I have given my best."

And the best is what we wish for her in this incredible journey.

My Outreach Story

Birthday, new home, new job, weekend... good things right? Think again!!!

A Friday... 5 pm, just wound up my first week in a job; it also happened to be my birthday, and the first week I had become a "home owner". A million things were competing for space in my neural pathways when I hopped into my car and went back home.

30 minutes and a cup of hot coffee later, realization of a catastrophe struck. I was to land up at an outreach event at 8.30 in the morning, the next day and I had actually forgotten to bring the booth box with me!!! (to the uninitiated, the booth-box is a plastic box about 1 cubic feet that contains everything you need for an outreach event; so without that box, you can't outreach!)

So here I was, booth-box-less, offices closed with no option to re-open it till Monday morning, that too on the first ever outreach event as "outreach coordinator"; not a nice place to be in, I assure you!

But all was not lost! A long timer with Maitri, (thanks a ton, S!!!) had suggested that we scan and upload all outreach material so that it was available in the event that the booth-box was unavailable. I had worked on that, and saved a copy of the material in my system.

A packet of colored printing paper and an empty printing cartridge later, I actually had all the printed material I could find in the booth-box. Throw in a table cloth, donation box, a writing pad, pens, my birthday flowers and I had a pretty table ready at the event the next day.

Would you believe the guy at the next table actually said ours was the most attractive table of all!

So, with a willing heart, warm smile, and the scanned folder of outreach material with you, outreach can be easy, fun and rewarding... with or without a booth box.

About Maitri

We are a free, confidential, referral nonprofit organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area, that primarily helps families from South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka among others) facing domestic violence, emotional abuse, cultural alienation, human trafficking or family conflict.

We are non-discriminatory in our services with respect to gender, race, color, religion, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation.

For more details about us, please visit our website at www.maitri.org

you can follow our posts on the Maitri blog at http://helpingwomenhelpthemselves.blogspot.com/

Join us in our Facebook group!

Census 2010

Your 10 minutes is worth $20,000 to our community!

Every 10 years, the federal government counts every individual living in the United States at the moment through the Census. Irrespective of age, race, religion or immigration status, everybody is counted. (The law encourages every one residing in the U.S to respond, irrespective of whether you are a citizen, legal or undocumented immigrant, on tourist, business, work, or dependent visa).

In the 2000 census, only 70% of our community was counted. The community loses about $2000 for every person not counted. So the Census 2000 under-count lost Santa Clara more than a billion dollars!

In 2010, let us ensure each of us is counted by filling in the Census form . By doing this, we will get:

• Better jobs for everyone.
• New schools and daycare centers for our children
• Food, housing, job training, and healthcare for low income people
• Stronger political representation and a stronger voice for our community .

Remember, the Census 2010 is:

Easy! Just 10 questions that can be answered in 10 minutes or less and will have an impact on us for 10 years!

Safe! The Census Bureau does not share the information with any other government agency

Important! The census will decide how more than $400 billion in federal funds is allocated annually to different communities and states for the next 10 years.
In March 2010, every household will receive the census form by mail. Fill in the details for every member of the household and return the form by April 1, 2010. For more details, see www.2010census.gov
For language assistance in Bengali, Farsi, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu or for any other questions about the 2010 census, mail outreach@maitri.org.

Announcements

New Board Member

New Staff Member

In her current position, Gurpreet is involved in answering calls from clients, performing intake, peer counseling, connecting clients with appropriate volunteers and other community resources, coordinating Maitri's outreach efforts, researching resources, and office administration.

Gurpreet is bilingual in Punjabi. She is a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Masters in Social Work from California State University, East Bay.
We wish her luck in this career!