South Asian NGO played big role in Obama`s victory

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), an NGO which advocates for civil rights and immigrant rights issues facing the community in the United States, has played a big role in the victory of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama by galvanising the immigrant community in America.

Approximately 2.7 million South Asians live in the United States, which comprises individuals with ancestry from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Maldives

The SAALT educated the immigrants about their rights and their participation in the civic and political process in the United States. Both Democrats and Republicans were pulling out all the stops, especially in a few crucial swing states to woo Asian immigrants, which could decide the results.

A survey conducted just before the polls showed that 41 percent Asian-American voters supported Barack Obama, 24 percent McCain, where as 34 percent remained un decided.

South Asian political involvement in the US has been on the rise over the past decade, and the run-up to the November 4 presidential elections showed that South Asians - the third largest Asian American ethnic group - have been actively engaged in the presidential campaigns, voter mobilization efforts, and bids for state and national office.

Talking exclusively to ANI, SAALT''s executive director and lawyer Deepa Iyer said Asian-American voters'' concentrate mainly on economic policies, public health, immigration and education.

Pointing out the reasons for more participation of the South Asian communities in the November 4 US presidential elections, Iyer told ANI: "There are many reasons for the engagement of the South Asian community in the elections this year."

"First of all in terms of our community''s history it is natural that as people get more engaged, more connected and more settled in the US they feel invested in wanting to play a role in the political process. So ... of this is immigration power against immigrants'' history."

"Secondly, we have seen a shift of generations in terms of how the political process is being engaged. For many first generation Indian Americans who may have come here after 1965 a lot of the issues were very important like foreign policy. Now we are also seeing issues that affect us domestically here for example issues like the economy, education, healthcare, civil rights, immigration," Iyer said.

"And, thirdly, we have also heard about that there''s something about this election specifically whether its the candidates that are running, whether its the climate of this country, that''s really motivating people to come out to the polls and cast their votes and have their voices heard. So those are some of the factors and observations that we found in our world at South Asian scene," she added.

"One of the most important thing that we think for our organisation is to make sure that those who are interested in voting be able to understand what the political process is like and what their rights are when they go to the ballot boxes," said Priya Murthy, Policy Director of SAALT.

"We think that''s really important for all immigrants and the south Asians in the United States so that they can participate in the civic and political process. So one of the things that we do is we develop a range of community education materials for individuals in the south Asian community so that they know how does US political system works."

"What is it like when you actually go try and cast your ballot on the Election Day. And what do you do if you have any problems when you go to the ballot box, incase your voting rights are violated, what do you do where can you turn to for help," she added.

SAALT is a group of first and second-generation Asian immigrants interested in creating a national organisation that is focused on leadership development. The organisation was run voluntarily and eventually called "South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow".

The community also includes members of the South Asian diaspora - past generations of South Asians who originally settled in many areas around the world, including the Caribbean (Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago), Africa (Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda), Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and other parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands (Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore).

The community is comprised of individuals who practice distinct religions and speak different languages yet share similar immigration histories.

For example, South Asians practice Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. The most common languages other than English spoken by South Asians in the United States include Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu.

SAALT’s Board of Directors -— they appear to be the typical collection of “career victims.”

[From their website]

Jayesh Rathod [Chair] is the current Chair of SAALT’s Board of Directors. Jayesh is a Practitioner-in-Residence with the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University Washington College of Law (WCL). Prior to joining the WCL faculty, he was a Staff Attorney at CASA of Maryland, representing low-wage immigrant workers on employment law and immigration matters, and participating in worker education, organizing, and advocacy efforts. He also practiced in the litigation section at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering LLP, and was law clerk to the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer, of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Over the course of his career, he has worked with numerous non-governmental organizations to advance the civil and human rights of communities in the United States and abroad. His areas of specialty and scholarly interests include immigrants’ rights, labor and employment, occupational safety and health, and the intersection of law and organizing. He is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Harvard University.

Ankur Agarwal [Vice Chair] is a Member of Technical Staff at Spansion, a flash memory spin-off of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), in Silicon Valley. He holds various patents in process technology development from his many years at AMD. He has been an active leader in the community through his management of SAALT’s national day of service project, “Be The Change”, over many years. Ankur has worked with over 200 organizations and many volunteers in organizing the annual project each. Ankur’s work in the South Asian community stems from his involvement with South Asian organizations and events as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of Michigan. He currently resides in the Bay Area and is active in the local community

Anouska Cheddie [Secretary] is a Senior Major Gifts Officer with Planned Parenthood of America (PPFA). She works with donors who give $5,000 + annually to PPFA and/or to Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the advocacy and political arm of PPFA . Prior to PPFA, Anouska was the Development Director for the North Star Fund, a non-endowed community foundation that funds community organizing in New York City. She got her start in development as a political fundraiser where she worked for such progressive candidates as New York State Senator Liz Krueger and former New York City Councilmember Stephen DiBrienza. She has also volunteered with the Sithabile Child and Youth Center in Johannesburg, South Africa and the Seagull Arts and Media Center in Calcutta, India. Anouska is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany and School of OrientalLondon UK. and African Studies (SOAS),

Sunil Oommen is the co-chair of SAALT’s Fundraising Committee. He is the Development Director at South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) in Queens, New York. Sunil manages the fundraising and marketing functions for SAYA!, the country’s only nonsectarian youth development organization for South Asian youth. Previous to joining SAYA!, Sunil was a Major Gifts Officer at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), where he served as the East Coast liaison for the Alliance Circle, GLAAD’s premier major donor program. Prior to GLAAD, Sunil focused on corporate giving and community relations at the New York Blood Center. Sunil entered the fundraising field after years in public relations and marketing for a variety of nonprofit organizations and corporations. He developed communications strategies and executed media relations for organizations such as, Heidrick & Struggles, Project People Foundation, KPMG, Cendant Corporation, CV Therapeutics, Cross-Cultural Solutions and the New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services. A proud resident of New York City, Sunil earned a Master of Science degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts degree from American University in French language/Western European Area Studies.

Maryah Qureshi [Treasurer] is a graduate student in Marital and Family Therapy at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. A Chicago-lifer, Maryah is a graduate of the University of Chicago with a BA in Economics and Public Policy and worked in economic development consulting prior to beginning her master’s in September 2007. Active in Chicago’s community development scene with a special focus on South Asian and Muslim community empowerment, Maryah is a core member of the South Asian Progressive Action Collective (SAPAC) and serves on the board of the Leadership Council of Asian Pacific Americans and the Young Women’s Leadership Council of the Chicago Foundation for Women.
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Ambreen Ali is a journalist. She received a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She studied new media journalism and is focusing on international and community-based journalism that works to create awareness of underrepresented issues and people. In 2006, Ambreen served as Communications Associate for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. She was also the editor of Responsive Philanthropy, a quarterly journal. Ambreen graduated from the University of Washington Business School with college honors and served as a program associate for Catholic Community Services’ Youth Tutoring Program in 2004. In 2005, she spent three months in Karachi, Pakistan, where she worked for The Citizens’ Foundation, South Asia’s largest non-governmental organization. After a freelance trip to the earthquake-affected regions of Pakistan and Kashmir, Ambreen’s work appeared in World View, Glimpse Quarterly, Woman International, PakCast, and Newsline (Pakistan).

Nicholas Rathod hails from the state of Nebraska, where his parents emigrated to from Gujarat, India. Nick attended Nebraska Wesleyan University where he worked for State Senator Dan Fisher and was a founder of the first NAACP chapter in the state. He is a 2000 graduate of American University Law School. Currently, Nick works as the Political Director for New York Governor David Spitzer. In addition, Nick works with Senators Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer and New York’s Congressional Delegation in political and policy decision-making to assure that New York’s interests are represented in Federal legislation. Nick has also directed state and local operations at the Center for American Progress, and has worked across the country with progressive governors, mayors and state legislators to craft and pass progressive legislation such as stem cell research expansion, laws promoting renewable energy, workers rights and immigration reform.

Rishi Reddi is a writer and attorney living near Boston, MA. Her first book of fiction about the Indian immigrant experience, Karma and Other Stories, was published by Ecco/HarperCollins and won the 2008 PEN New England / L.L. Winship Award. Her work has been chosen to appear in Best American Short Stories, broadcast on National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts series and earned an honorable mention in the Pushcart Prize. She has practiced environmental law for both federal and state government, working in the areas of policy and enforcement. She currently works at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection on issues relating to climate change and the regulation of greenhouse gases. She has also served as the Massachusetts Legislative Coordinator for Amnesty International USA. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Northeastern University School of Law, was born in Hyderabad, India, and has lived in both England and the United States.

SAALT Council of Advisors

SAALT’s Council of Advisors, created in 2006, assembles a group of individuals with expertise and knowledge about policy issues and immigrant communities. The Council of Advisors provides guidance to SAALT regarding stances on policy issues and collaborations with South Asian and non-South Asian organizations.

Penny Abeywardena is the Director of Strategic Relations at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy in New York. Prior to joining DMI Penny was the Development Program Officer at the Funding Exchange in New York. She has also worked in development and program areas for Human Rights Watch, the Fund for Global Human Rights and Doctors Without Borders. She graduated from the University of Southern California in 1999 with a BA in Political Science and minor in Business Administration. She completed her Master in International Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2004, where she studied economic and political development and non-profit management. Penny concurrently completed Columbia’s Fundraising Management program, and was the editor of Rights News, an annual publication by Columbia’s Center for the Study of Human Rights from 2004-2006. Penny currently serves on Sakhi for South Asian Women’s Board of Directors and the New York Women’s Foundation’s Grants Allocation Committee. She has previously served on the Board of Advisors of Resource Generation.

Muneer Ahmad is an associate professor of law at the Washington College of Law at the American University in DC. He holds expertise in immigrants’ rights, clinical legal education, labor and employment and poverty law. Prior to joining the faculty of the Washington College of Law, Ahmad was staff attorney and Skadden Fellow at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles. Previously he was law clerk to the Hon. William K. Sessions, III, U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vt. From 1998 to 2001 he was Legal Task Force Chair of the South Asian Network in Artesia, Cal. He has presented on various human rights topics at such institutions as Harvard University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Northridge, New England School of Law, Loyola Marymount University Conferences sponsored by: U.S. Department of State, American Studies Association, The Rockefeller Foundation, The California Endowment, The Wellness Foundation, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. He is author of “Serving Market Needs, Not People’s Needs: The Indignity of Welfare Reform,” 10 Amer. U. J. of Gender, Soc. Policy & Law 27 (2002); “Homeland Insecurities: Racial Profiling the Day After 9/11,” Social Text 72, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Fall 2002); “The Ethics of Narrative,” 11 Amer. U. J. of Gender, Soc. Policy & Law 117 (2002); “A Rage Shared by Law: Post-September 11 Racial Violence as Crimes of Passion,” 92 Cal. L. Rev. 1259 (2004).

Anushka Fernandopulle lives in San Francisco and works as a management consultant, facilitator, coach and trainer for nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area and nationally. Anushka holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management focusing on organizational behavior and nonprofit management and a BA from Harvard University in Social Anthropology and Comparative Religions. Her work has included supporting organizations in the fields of public health, social and economic justice, civil rights, the environment, and the arts. Anushka is also a lay teacher in the Theravada Buddhist tradition and teaches retreats around the US.

Vanita Gupta works for the national legal department of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) where she litigates cases to improve access to justice and education for communities of color, and challenges post 9/11 racial profiling and racially-biased aspects of the criminal justice system. Before joining the ACLU, Ms. Gupta served as Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (LDF) for five years. At LDF, her work centered on civil rights litigation that promoted systemic reform of the criminal justice system. Ms. Gupta successfully led the effort to overturn the drug convictions of 38 defendants in Tulia, Texas, representing wrongfully-convicted individuals, organizing national law firms, and coordination the overall legal and media strategy. With co-counsel, she settled civil rights cases filed on behalf of the wrongfully convicted Tulia residents for $6 million. A movie, titled Tulia, about Ms. Gupta’s role in exposing the injustice in Tulia will be released in 2008.

Ms. Gupta has received numerous awards including the Reebok Human Rights Award and the American Red Cross “Rising Star” award, the India Abroad Special Award for Outstanding Achievement, and the Upakar Foundation Community Ambassador Award. Ms. Gupta was also profiled in The New York Times “Public Lives” section in 2003. She is a member of the U.S. Programs Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch, and a member of SAALT’s Council of Advisors.

Chaumtoli Huq is the Director of Litigation for Manhattan Legal Services which provides free legal services to low income residents of Manhattan through its offices in Harlem and Lower Manhattan. Prior to joining MLS, she was the senior staff attorney with MFY Legal Service’s Workplace Justice Project. Ms. Huq was previously a staff attorney with the New York Taxi Workers’ Alliance (NYTWA), a membership-based organization of immigrant taxi-drivers in New York City. There, she directed the Wheels of Justice project which provided legal support to TWA organizing efforts through litigation and policy initiatives. Ms. Huq moved to NYTWA from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) in New York, where she was a Staff Attorney/Skadden Fellow. Ms. Huq founded and directed the first South Asian Workers Rights Project (SAWRP) that provided legal support to low wage South Asian workers. After graduating from Columbia University in 1993, Ms.Huq worked as the Domestic Violence Coordinator at Sakhi for South Asian Women. A graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, she was a Staff Attorney at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, PA from 1997-1999. Born in Bangladesh and raised in Bronx, New York, Ms. Huq tries to connect her community based work in New York with international human rights issues. She is a proud mother of two children: Zarif and Liyana.

Ann Kalayil is the co-founder and director of the South Asian American Policy and Research Institute (SAAPRI). She has a Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and teaches Asian American Studies at DePaul University. She has taught courses focusing on Asian and Asian-American History at the University of Illinois and Loyola University. As a Board member of several organizations, both community service and advocacy based, she is active in Chicago’s Indian American and Asian American community. She has conducted diversity training and spent over a decade advocating in the following areas: economic development for target communities, reforms in immigration, campaign finance, education, tougher hate crimes legislation, combating stereotyping of Asian Americans in media, and political empowerment.

Anil Kalhan is an Associate Professor of Law at Drexel University’s Earle Mack School of Law. Before coming to Drexel, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Fordham University Law School and an Associate in Law at Columbia Law School, and he previously served as a litigation associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and co-coordinator of the firm’s immigration and international human rights pro bono practice group. He also has previously worked for the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project in New York and served as law clerk to the Hon. Chester J. Straub (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit) and the Hon. Gerard E. Lynch (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York). He currently serves on the board of directors of the South Asian Bar Association of New York, the national council of advisors for South Asian Americans Leading Together, and the advisory board of the Discrimination and National Security Initiative of the Harvard University Pluralism Project. He has been a contributing writer for Dorf on Law, AsiaMedia, and SAJAforum, and previously was a member of the International Law Committee and International Human Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Before attending law school, he worked for Cable News Network, the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and the New York City Department of Transportation.

Sheela Murthy After gaining experience in top firms in New York and Baltimore, Sheela Murthy began the Murthy Law Firm in 1994. Located on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland with a liaison office in Chennai, India, her firm is considered one of the world’s premier U.S. immigration law firms, as confirmed by the U.K.-based Chambers Global. Having earned her LL.M. from Harvard Law School, Ms. Murthy has many honors to her credit. She is recognized as a Super Lawyer in Maryland, listed as one of the top U.S. immigration lawyers in the world in the Who’s Who in Corporate Immigration Law, as one of Baltimore’s top twenty-five lawyers by the Baltimore Business Journal, and is a recent recipient of the Bravo! Award from SmartCEO Magazine, awarded to women entrepreneurs. Ms. Murthy serves on several boards, including the American Immigration Law Foundation, the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, the MurthyFoundation, and Stevenson University. She is active at the leadership level of nonprofit organizations including the United Way of Central Maryland and United Way International. A frequent speaker, both nationally and internationally, Ms. Murthy has appeared at Harvard and other universities, and is often quoted in national and local media. Sheela is sought after as a motivational speaker for her passion and unique perspectives on life as an immigrant, a minority woman, and as a business leader.

Nitasha Kaur Sawhney is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Garcia Calderon Ruiz, LLP. Ms. Sawhney specializes in education, labor and employment law and advises clients on matters related to labor negotiations, personnel, charter schools, educational foundations, public meeting laws and school district governance matters. In 2006, Ms. Sawhney was appointed by California Assembly Speak Fabian Nunez to serve on the California State Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. Ms. Sawhney currently serves as vice-chair of the Commission. In addition, Ms. Sawhney is an advisor to the Discrimination & National Security Initiative, an affiliate of Harvard University’s Pluralism Project and is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Diversity in the Profession Committee. Ms. Sawhney also serves as a legal volunteer with the California Sikh Council and the Sikh American Legal Defense & Education Fund (SALDEF). Ms. Sawhney was awarded the 2006 Spirit in Action Award from the Interfaith Councils of the City of Garden Grove, Stanton, and Westminster for her work in raising funds and awareness to aid victims of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and her dedication to public service. Due to her outstanding community service initiatives, Ms. Sawhney was awarded the 2008 Public Interest Award from South Asian Bar Association of Southern California on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. Ms. Sawhney is a first generation South Asian American. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley where she studied Mass Communication and Ethnic Studies. Ms. Sawhney received her law degree from the UC Davis’ King Hall Law School.

Tito Sinha is an attorney in private practice, specializing in civil rights, real estate, and wills and estates. He is a former staff attorney, and former board member, at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, where he worked on hate crimes, voting rights, immigrants rights and other civil rights areas. He is a graduate of the City University of New York School of Law and Swarthmore College. He is also a founding board member of South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) in Queens, New York.

Jayashri Srikantiah A respected voice on immigration law and civil rights, Jayashri Srikantiah is the director of the law school’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, in which students represent individual immigrants and immigrants’ rights organizations and also engage in community outreach, public education, and policy advocacy. She has litigated extensively on behalf of immigrants, and her experience includes challenges to mandatory and indefinite detention policies in the federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court and representation of human trafficking survivors. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2004, Professor Srikantiah was the associate legal director of the ACLU of Northern California and a staff attorney at the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. She was a law clerk to Judge David R. Thompson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

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