The Davis-based non-profit hosted speakers and performers to reflect on their history and fundraise for future efforts
By RORY CONLON — rhconlon@ucdavis.edu
Sahaya International, a Davis-based non-profit that funds schools, HIV/AIDS programs and basic needs assistance, celebrated its 25th anniversary in the Veterans Memorial Theatre on Nov. 2. During the event, they screened a 2013 documentary made about their organization, hosted speakers to discuss their mission and recruited students to perform cultural dances.
Ramin Yazdani, the president of Sahaya International, introduced the organization’s goals to attendees.
“Tonight is about honoring the impact we’ve made together, empowering children, transforming communities and building hope in places where there is really big need,” Yazdani said. “We are excited to share these stories and lives that have been changed and to recognize the people whose dedication has brought the Sahaya mission to life.”
Sahaya International is a program that runs in five main locations: India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Kenya and Uganda.
Durai Selvam, the founder of the Rural Education and Action Development Program (READ), started on his own by establishing a school for children in the rural districts of Tamil Nadu in Southern India. After meeting with Koen Van Rompay, the founder and executive director of Sahaya, Selvam expanded his goals to tackle another prominent issue in Tamil Nadu: the spread and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
“We got a grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and we gave peer education to women groups, to men through barbers and to young children through barbers and public people,” Selvam said. “Before that, for three or four years, we could not get [to] any HIV-infected people, very few. Only after giving that tremendous awareness program to all our districts, immediately more than 300 people came out, and we started to support them to get free medicine from the Tamil hospital 250 kilometers away.”
His efforts to raise awareness laid the foundation for a program supporting basic home-based care, income generation programs and nutrition support for people with HIV. Selvam told the story of a young HIV-positive girl named Monisha, who he first met in 2003.
“She lost her parents, so we supported her through a sponsorship program,” Selvam said. “After 16 years, she graduated with a diploma in nursing and was appointed as a nursing staff [member] in Reeds Health Center. In 2021, during the lockdown period, she got married to a young man also living with HIV, and she now has a two-year-old boy who is HIV-negative.”
Chuong Truong, who leads Sahaya’s work in Vietnam, reflected on how escaping from Vietnam in 1979 and his refugee identity shaped him.
“We build houses for people who are homeless and living in shacks,” Truong said. “As an infant, I realized that I was living in a shack myself for a whole year […] I’m thankful to come in today to present this [documentary] and also to come full circle — escaping a country and being able to come and give back to the people who are still there.”
In the documentary, Truong described the conditions families are living in.
“These families are living in shelters made up of rubbish and the floor is pavement,” Truong said. “A lot of these families suffer from depression and insomnia — when it rains, they can’t sleep. Tropical rain [happens] for at least four or five months out of the year.”
Families who receive housing are chosen based on interviews conducted by nuns at a local Buddhist temple. The documentary followed two young families receiving homes through the program and orphans at a local school who received grants they needed to pursue their education.
Koen Van Rompay, the founder and executive director of Sahaya, closed out the night by discussing the organization’s work in Uganda.
In October and November of 2022, a series of storms struck Uganda, causing major flooding that destroyed homes and displaced many children. Rompay said that Akiikih Appolo, the leader of the Banyabutumbi Cultural Heritage Organization (BACHO-K), took those children in.
“Almost every week, there was another storm, and the situation just got worse,” Rompay said. “Akiikih and his wife have such a big heart: they took all of those children into their little house, and they were sleeping like sardines every night. But of course, for them, it was a really big challenge, so we knew we had to do something.”
Last December, Sahaya built dormitories to house some of those children. However, since then, more children have been displaced from a village in the north hit by flooding, creating the need for more housing.
Rompay thanked attendees for their support. He reflected on how an organization that started at his kitchen table turned into an organization that spanned continents.
“When I started Sahaya, my expectations were humble,” Rompay said. “I thought, ‘If we are really successful, we may raise a few thousand dollars per year.’ Of course, we have far exceeded that thanks to your support. What’s really behind the success of Sahaya is this quote: ‘Each of us really has that power in us to be a drop that can create a new ripple.’ That’s really what happened, the ripple effect.”
Written By: Rory Conlon — rhconlon@ucdavis.edu
