At a Newton banquet hall Friday evening (April 26), South Asian Community Hub (SACH) will raise money to help provide “vital services to people of South Asian descent and their families living with mental-health, addictions and socio-economic challenges.”
A small but growing nonprofit, SACH was formed in 2020 in an effort to break down barriers to health services, particularly for South Asian men wrestling with drug addiction, mental health and homelessness.
Their mission: provide low-barrier services, counselling and advocacy “through a South Asian perspective,” according to SACH’s website.
“The founding members of the organization were responding to data from Fraser Health showing that South Asian males, middle-aged, were over-represented in the data regarding addiction and opioid use, yet underrepresented in terms of them accessing services,” explained Daljit Gill-Badesha, SACH executive director.
“We see this gap between the need and the services, so SACH was created to start to take services out, through an outreach model, to help those South Asians understand what services are available and to provide the cultural bridging, the navigating support, to access those services.”
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The nonprofit’s “outreach walks” are mostly in the Newton and Whalley areas, where conversations with potential “clients” connect them to services for various needs. SACH also works with family members concerned about loved ones who might be struggling with drug use, mental health and homelessness.
“We have an office in Newton where we can schedule visits,” Gill-Badesha noted, “but it’s not a drop-in office at this time. Our outreach work is done in partnership with the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, and we do evenings and weekends on our own as an organization.
“Our larger aspiration would be to have a physical site one day in Surrey, hopefully in Newton, where we know we have a large South Asian population, where clients can come in for services.”
Friday’s “SACH a Worthy Cause” fundraiser is planned at Crown Place Banquet Hall (12025 Nordel Way), 6 to 10 p.m. Tickets are sold for $125 each on sachbc.ca/events/annual-gala-2024, or $1,000 a table for eight.
“We have a short runway in organizing the event,” said Gill-Badesha, “and we’re really pleased that tickets are selling, sponsorships are coming on board, businesses are really stepping up. We anticipate several hundred people at this event, and we’re really excited because it’s not only just an opportunity to host the event and, of course, raise funds, it’s also an opportunity for us to raise awareness about the work we’re doing.”
More info about SACH is found on facebook.com/sachbc.