Voices From the Community: South Asian support groups

I’ve noticed that there are no support groups for South-Asians in Maryland.

I was talking to an elderly friend of my mother’s the other day. She is dealing with issues regarding her family life. She has a special needs child, and is having difficulty dealing with her teenage sons. Because she is an immigrant and has weak English skills, she is having a hard time dealing with many things. I’ve met many other women just like her over the years. And I’ve often wondered if a support group might help them.

These are traditional desi (South-Asian) women who would never want to attend an American support group, because they would feel that their needs would not be addressed.

What’s more unbelievable is that there are not a lot of South-Asian therapists in Maryland, either. And the few that exist don’t speak Hindi or Urdu.

I was talking to a friend of mine. She is one of the few desi therapists I know in the area. She was telling me that she wants to start a support group for South-Asians. Of course, I agreed with her that it’s definitely a good idea. I wish there was a group or an organization like that. Sometimes, I'm almost tempted to start such a group myself.

Of course, one of the challenges with such a group would be the Desi tendency of not wanting to air our "dirty laundry" in public, of not wanting to talk about our problems openly with "strangers."

-Anonymous
Maryland, USA