South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) is a national non-profit organization dedicated to fostering an environment in which all South Asians in America can participate fully in civic and political life, and have influence over policies that affect them. Approximately 2.7 million South Asians live in the United States, tracing their backgrounds to Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and the diaspora, including Trinidad/Tobago, Guyana, and Africa. SAALT works to achieve our mission through a social justice framework that incorporates the strategies of policy analysis and advocacy, community education, local capacity-building, and leadership development. Each of these strategies are linked to specific programs which you will find more information about on this website.
Press Clips (Archive)
For the newest press releases, please visit www.saalt.org. This site is no longer being updated.
In recognition of National Coming Out Day,the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) released a statement affirming support for LGBT equality, including: marriage equality, employment and student non-discrimination, and LGBT-inclusive health care. NCAPA is the country’s leading coalition of advocacy groups supporting Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Some groups that belong to NCAPA include the Asian American Justice Center, Japanese American Citizens League, National Association of Asian American Professionals and South Asian Americans Leading Together.
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), a 38-year old civil rights organization, released a new report today documenting the many obstacles faced by Asian American voters during the Presidential Primary Elections in early 2012.
Washington -- As many as 81 members of the US House of Representatives have introduced a resolution supporting a call to the Justice Department to begin collecting comprehensive data on hate crimes committed against Sikhs.
Introduced in the wake of the Aug 5 shooting at a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, the resolution honours the contributions of the Sikh-American community to the United States and condemns the string of attacks against Sikhs and their religious institutions over the past year.
Two weeks after the tragedy in Oak Creek, Wisc. that killed six people and injured many others, Mark H. Morial, president of the National Urban League, and I were at a meeting with community leaders representing a range of racial justice organizations. During a discussion about the hate crime in Oak Creek, several African American community leaders reflected poignantly that “Oak Creek is today’s Birmingham,” hearkening back to the racially-motivated bombing of a church in that city in 1963. Others remembered the African American churches in the south that were destroyed by arsons in the mid-1990s. Then, as in Oak Creek nearly two months ago, community members experienced the isolation, fear, and anxiety that arise from being targeted, particularly at places of worship.
A coalition of 31 Asian American, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian organizations Sept. 20 released a list of policy recommendations to improve the lives of Asian Americans and other Pacific Islander groups throughout the U.S. in the areas of civil rights, education, health, housing, economic justice and immigration.
Coming about six weeks after the slaying of worshipers at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin (I-W, Aug. 10), the most timely recommendations encourage more accurate reporting of hate crimes, measures to improve tolerance of religious and cultural diversity and the passage of an “End to Racial Profiling Act.”
As they took out leftovers from the refrigerator Aug. 7, teenager Harpreet Singh Saini, and members of his family realized it was the last meal they would ever eat cooked by his mother, who had been gunned down by a white supremacist at the gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wis., two days before.
At a news conference that followed a United States Senate hearing on 'Hate Crimes and the Threat of Domestic Extremism,' representatives of several civil rights and interfaith organisations pledged to stand together to fight the unprecedented level of racial profiling, discrimination and hate violence against South Asians, Arab Americans, Sikhs and Muslims living in America ever since 9/11.
The Senate hearing was held in the wake of the shooting incident in a gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin on August 5, in which five worshippers were killed.South Asian American Leading Together (SAALT) is an organization dedicated to social change through building bridges across communities. Deepa Iyer is the Executive Director of SAALT and is regarded as an expert on the impact of September 11th on immigrants and minority communities in the US.
Enjoy this engaging and thought-provoking interview.
WASHINGTON — In response to the shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and other recent incidents, the Japanese American Citizens League joined more than 150 community organizations in urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct a hearing on hate crimes and hate groups.