Maitri celebrated 34 years of empowering South Asian survivors of domestic violence and abuse with a glamorous gala that raised a million dollars on April 5, 2025, in Palo Alto, California. Since its inception in 1991, the non-profit has helped 8400 survivors and disbursed 1.42 million in grants to them.
“There was unwillingness to look at something violent and not a very good side of the community that Maitri had to work through,” said Arindam Majumdar, Maitri Supporter, about his involvement in Maitri’s cause of helping survivors of domestic violence and raising awareness of the issue of prevalence of domestic violence in the South Asian community.
He went on to add that many social work programs for minority populations are now under threat, blaming the current administration’s stance on women’s issues. “The things that they are doing at the federal level is to make women invisible, and whether that includes in the context of DEI or trying to make abortion illegal and criminalize it, the message that this administration sends is that they want women to go backwards by about 100 years. I think that the work that Maitri is doing is going to be even more important, in the context of new challenges in this new political climate,” said Majumdar.
Reiterating the need for awareness and advocacy, Board members JP Krishnamoorthy and Meena Vashee said, “We can do a lot more to educate people via outreach programs, not necessarily people who are getting abused, but people around them, because if they can spot abuse, they can help victims,” said Vashee.
“Often, it’s really a friend or a family member or even children, who can point out and maybe say, it’s time to do something.”
Despite the rise in the educational and economic statuses of women, statistics of domestic violence remain stubbornly high. “The silver lining is that as women are getting educated and they have good careers, once they get out of the violent situation, they can be self-sufficient and are better equipped to stand on their own,” says Vashee. Maitri runs outreach programs in high schools and colleges about teen dating violence that sensitizes the youth to recognize red flags.
“There are still a lot of women, especially in the South Asian community who are dependent on their spouses. There’s a direct correlation between the amount of violence that happens to the levels of income and poverty. There are lots of studies that have shown that strong correlation. Given the economic climate, things could get worse. It is really important to empower survivors of domestic violence to gain self-sufficiency and live with dignity and respect,” added Krishnamoorthi.
“Everything is very uncertain. Things are still being worked out in that space. We don’t know how it’ll impact us, and we are just hopeful that as things settle, these may go away. If there are funding cuts, we absolutely will be impacted. Our services will be impacted,” said Rama Dharmarajan, Maitri’s Executive Director. “Because there’s so much uncertainty, we’re just waiting and watching. Federal funds are about 20% of our current funding.”
Geetha Krishnamurthi, Maitri Board President, stated, “It doesn’t mean that anything we’re doing will stop. None of the programs will stop, but overall, how much we are able to do may be affected. We will somehow make this work. The programs or services may be minimized, but we will continue to support the survivors and they will get whatever support they need to reclaim their lives.” As part of their prevention program, Maitri works with high schoolers and college students, holding workshops to promote understanding of healthy relationships and how to identify signs of abuse.
Krishnamurthi added that many high schoolers and college students raise funds for Maitri. “University of California, Santa Barbara raised around $10,000 at one time and Saratoga High School has done similar funding. We got funding from a school in Morgan Hill. The children have been very active and conscious about recognizing this problem, acknowledging it, and trying to figure out how to stop. Digital media has helped us reach more people and do more outreach.”
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