SAPNA NYC

📢 Speak Bangla & English? Come learn more about the Language Justice Worker’s Cooperative at our open house in the Bronx, Thursday, January 16th at 5:30pm! Can’t make it on the 16th, join a virtual open house the week of the 20th. Let us know and we’ll reach out once date & time are confirmed. Our communities are best equipped to be the interpreters NYC needs to ensure language access for our immigrant communities. This will improve the quality of the interpretation in NYC while also bringing job opportunities to our community! 📌 Requirements for potential interpreters: 🔹 Will receive training so do NOT need to be certified interpreters or have done any interpretation before 🔹 Must speak, read, & write English 🔹 Must speak, read, & write Bangla 🔹 Must be at least 18 years old 🔹 Live in greater NYC area 📌 Commitment IF you join the program: ▪️Complete an English & Bangla assessment in February to be accepted into the program ▪️Complete 40-hour virtual training - twice a week between March and June 202 2025 ⭐️ Those who complete the program will receive an interpreter certification by end of Summer.

As we begin 2025, we honor, grieve, and remember the 19 precious lives we lost to gender-based, intimate-partner, and family violence in the South Asian American diaspora in 2024 🤍 We honor the lives of Rajdeep Kaur, Alice Benziger, Noah, Neithan, Chandra Maya Poudel-Rima, Syeda Aalia Nayya, Syeda Fatima, Alizey Fatima, Vipanpal Multani, Jasvir Kaur, Tika Dhimal, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, and Sowmya Balasubramanian. Their Light Remains stands as an affirmation of life, an urgent call for action, and a reminder that our grief and struggles for liberation are connected. We call for urgent investment and action to prevent violence, support survivors, and build pathways to safety, justice, and healing for South Asian communities. ✊🏽 In solidarity with more than 30 grassroots organizations in our collective, we call for urgent action: to invest in violence prevention and ensure safety for South Asian communities. ➡️ We invite you to add your support by reading, sharing, and signing the letter & statement at: bit.ly/endgbvletter As you engage, we invite you to be gentle with yourself. Together, we carry the weight of loss, and together, we build a future free of violence. 💜 Series by: South Asian SOAR (@southasiansoar) | Artwork by: Naina Hussain (@bynainah) ⚠️ Content Note: This has mentions of violence, suicide, and death, which may be triggering. #TheirLightRemains #GenderBasedViolence #DomesticViolence

SAPNA NYC works to bring health services to people who are often overlooked by the traditional health systems. Read this Bronx Times piece to see how trusted community organizations can make the difference when it comes to mammograms, Pap smears, vaccines, & other routine care. Funding like the Access Health initiative is essential to address the real barriers that exist for immigrants, undocumented people, & people of color when it comes to accessible, appropriate, affordable, & quality healthcare.

Thank you for an incredible night of #community & radical #joy! If you weren't able to make it, it's not too late to support our community through a donation (https://lnkd.in/gzNivNTh). All proceeds go directly towards our Mukti [freedom] and Ananda [joy] initiatives. Swipe ➡️ for more info on what your support makes possible. We are so grateful to everyone who made the evening possible - 🌟 @songsbyanika for doing double duty as an incredible host and singer 🌟 @spondonbafa, @ayanaartsny, & @itiseyeris for sharing their time and talent 🌟 @chefsurbhi & @tagmonyc for the incredible food 🌟 All the volunteers for lending their hands 🌟 Our sponsors who allow every dollar raised to go straight to our community 🌟 The companies who donated to make our auction possible 🌟 Last but not least, all of you for supporting Sapna as we grow! Stay tuned for more photos! #festivalofdreams #radicaljoy #bengali #dream #immigrants #strongertogether #supportwomen #sapnanyc

Our SAPNA NYC team was proud to walk with KAFSC (Korean American Family Service Center) at their 27th Annual Silent March to help bring awareness to the issue of gender-based violence & to honor survivors. Our executive director, Diya Basu-Sen, spoke at the press conference alongside elected officials like Linda Lee & Steven Raga and community leaders like Asian American Federation and Sakhi for South Asian Survivors Diya shared how we came to this work as well as the different types of support our survivors need. In her words, “Sapna NYC is newer to the gender-based violence space. And we entered it not because of some strategic plan but because survivor after survivor came to us for help and it was imperative that we figure out a way to meet the need we were seeing on the ground. During the pandemic there was a time when Almost every week a survivor would come to us needing support. Sometimes this is providing mental health support in Bangla. Other times it’s helping with an application. and other times it’s as simple as giving the child of a survivor a teddy bear.” She ended with a reminder that all of us have a responsibility to speak out and that is imperative, especially now, that “none of us remain silent when we see misogyny, hate, or gender-based violence in any form.” #dvam #silentmarch #gbv

Only 2 days away! Join us this Thursday October 10th at 7PM for SAPNA NYC’s Festival of Dreams ✨ to celebrate the incredible immigrant women in our community. For tickets go to link in bio or visit bit.ly/SapnaFOD2024 We have an incredible lineup of performers and a special menu curated by Chef Surbhi Sahni of Tagmo. Come celebrate South Asian culture, learn more about Sapna NYC’s work, & support women’s dreams! #sapnanyc #festivalofdreams

Two weeks away! Join SAPNA NYC for the Festival of Dreams ✨ celebrating the incredible women in our community, with food by @chefsurbhi and performances by @songsbyanika, @spondonbafa, & @ayanaartsny. Visit bit.ly/sapnaFoD2024 for tickets and more information. All proceeds go towards our Mukti and Ananda initiatives bringing linguistically accessible mental health counseling, women's support circles, domestic violence survivor support, & community events. Help us bring #joy to our #community! #mentalhealth #genderbasedviolence

And it’s a wrap! This summer we were excited to continue to build @sapnanyc’s youth programming through the GenConnect program in collaboration with the NYC DOE Department of Multilingual Learners. Over 8 sessions, parents and their children talked about everything from cultivating #community to redlining to celebrating our #culture & #language. We had 76 participants - 38 #Bengali parent-child duos - over two groups. What we heard from almost all the families is how nice it was to have a space to connect with their kids outside of all the pressures of everyday life. For parents it can be challenging to raise children in a culture that is so different from their own and for children it can be a struggle to balance fitting in with embracing the richness of your heritage. Through GenConnect we hope to have begun bridging that gap!

Exited to start off our summer yoga & wellness classes with a session in Central Park under the gorgeous summer sun ☀️ much gratitude to @hotchailady for sharing her practice with SAPNA NYC’s community of women 🙏🏽 #healthiswealth #mentalhealth

Congratulations to our summer 2024 Project DOT graduates! We’re grateful to our #youth for spending their summer with SAPNA NYC sharing their experiences and thoughts, embracing new ideas, & learning how they have the power to shift our culture forward. We talked about everything from healthy boundaries to gender norms/expectations to bridging cultures. The youth truly are our future! Thank you to @nycalliance for partnering to bring this program to our community 🙏🏽 #futureleaders