Features and Collaborations
SASMHA x CLOROX
Co-founder Sree Sinha is leading a series of workshops around stress, grief and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic for several Clorox employee resource groups, which have over 3,000 members and designed to help drive inclusion and diversity within Clorox.
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN: BIPOC MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH
SASMHA Co-founder Sree Sinha had the opportunity to take part in several events by the Human Rights Campaign for BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month, including a panel on Mental Health in the Queer and Trans BIPOC Community. SASMHA was honored to be alongside amazing speakers, activists, and organizations like Mental Health America, The Trevor Project, and Whitman Walker Health.
WE WERE ALWAYS QUEER: HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN BLOG POST BY CO-FOUNDER TANIA CHATTERJEE for bipoc mental health awareness month
"Mental health is not something that’s easily talked about in the South Asian community. Being queer is the same — the expectation is that South Asians are straight, cis and perfect. We don’t struggle, fail or ever stumble. For those of us who go against the grain — by being queer (which is, to be clear, not a choice), by pursuing different careers, by speaking up against outdated norms and customs — we often face rejection and ostracization from our families and communities, simply for being who we are, and daring to live our own lives freely. The sheer weight of “what will people say” suffocates many of us, day in day out, as we are told to live our lives by the ideals of others, rather than our own.”
THE WOKE DESI PODCAST: SEXUALITY MENTALITY
We joined our friends at The Woke Desi to talk about the interactions between sexual and mental health, as well as the impacts of minority stress and more!
“Your virginity is so important. It’s the thing you have to take to your marriage or no one’s going to marry you. And those expectations become a burden when they clash with who you’re trying to be. Living your life to the fullest is also living your sexual life to the fullest, whatever that means to you.” - Tania
“We can’t arbitrarily divorce our mental health from our physical health as though our brain isn’t a part of our body. When you are able to be more comfortable and explorative and confident in your physical self, it does impact your self-esteem, your mood, your ability to feel confident.” - Sree
Media Coverage
‘Existing as a queer South Asian is draining’: How LGBTQ+ groups hope to combat stigma and exclusion
South Asians for America Discusses Ways of Educating the Community About Racism
Racial and Caste Apartheid: Are They Similar?
US Elections 2020: ‘Hindu Americans for Biden’ follows shifting South Asian identities
Nonprofit Groups Battle Sexual Health Stigma in South Asian Community
Bengali Mental Health MovEMENT: Mental Health Professionals Spotlight
“Psychology has always been a passion of mine, and I knew since high school that that’s what I wanted to major in. Deciding to pursue my doctorate specifically in counseling psychology allows me to bring in a social justice focus to my clinical work and research, including the intersections of ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender. I just see so much pain in the world, and my natural response to that is to try to do my part to heal it and put out some solace and kindness into the community. And so it's for that very reason that my work has always extended beyond just clinical or professional duties to community activism as well, including co-founding the South Asian Sexual and Mental Health Alliance. All people hold pain, in smaller and bigger ways, and my intention has always been to bring a little bit of light to that, especially in our own communities.”
NBC ASIAN AMERICAN: Nonprofit Groups Battle Sexual Health Stigma in South Asian Community
The stigma around discussing sex within Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities prompted Chatterjee and her brother, Trinish Chatterjee, as well as friends Sree Sinha and Sriya Sarkar, to launch the South Asian Sexual Health Alliance, a safe space and online forum targeting South Asian youth and young adults to discuss sexual health, sexuality, mental health, and LGBTQ issues.
“These three main issues are very stigmatized in the South Asian community and very taboo, and most of us can’t go up to a family or community elders and talk about it,” Tania Chatterjee said. “So we were thinking of providing this space and hopefully find like-minded people or find people going through the same issues. It helps to know you are not alone.”