Policy Advocacy

By Dr. Zakia Afrin, Director, Survivor Advocacy

The Domestic violence awareness month DVAM 2021 came and went with a lot of uncertainty and anxiety as the world continued to deal with the Pandemic second year in a row. For agencies serving immigrant population, the pandemic has expanded beyond the immediate surroundings of our lives. Most clients, staff and volunteers of Maitri have been living with loss of family, friends and dear ones in South Asia. Faced with this agonizing challenge, we focused on searching for glimmers of hope in the anti-violence movement. We attended city council meetings providing public comments on the need for creating culturally responsive ways to address domestic violence. Our volunteers and staff members secured 3 proclamations of DV awareness month from Bay Area Cities (Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Menlo Park) bringing the total proclamations secured by Maitri to 4 (Newark). We joined forces with organizations around the US in demanding critical reforms needed in the field and advocating for innovative practices bringing in community intervention models together with system based responses whenever appropriate. For the most part, we channeled our energy to talk about transnational issues faced by our survivors.

With transnational abandonment of South Asian women on the rise, Maitri conducted in depth interviews with 10 survivors with the intention of understanding this complex yet rampant abuse within marital relationships. Among the common experiences survivors relayed were lack of information on the overseas party, misinformation on how systems respond in the US and expectations from family as well as community members help resolve dispute between couples. We shared this learning with two diplomats of South Asia; Dr. Yuba Raj Katiwada, the Ambassador of Nepal to the United States of America and Ms. Sumati Rao, Consul, community affairs, information, culture & visa at the Indian consulate in San Francisco. We plan to continue to build strategic partnerships with stakeholders in South Asia together with community awareness about this issue. This research is part of the Victims Rights Advocacy Project (VRAP) funded by the Office of Gender Based Violence Prevention at the County of Santa Clara. and can be accessed Here.

As we move into a new year with many of the existing challenges in creating a peaceful society, our commitment is stronger and better and we invite you to join us in this movement to end gender based violence.