December 18, 2015 (New York, NY) – Over the past 14 years, the Sikh Coalition has become remarkably adept at staring down tanks, carefully aiming our slingshot, and delivering monumental victories on behalf of Sikh civil rights in America.
These victories are just some of the many we carry forward into 2016, but we do this work on a shoestring budget that constantly forces us to make terribly tough choices about the work that we do on your behalf. While we have grown into the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the United States, we are tiny compared to our peer organizations and the corporations, government agencies and institutions that we’re fighting against.
The Sikh Coalition has a team of twelve full time staff and four part time staff who dedicate their professional careers to tackling critical battles on behalf of the Sikh American community. For example, we have two full time practicing attorneys who responded to more than 200 requests for legal assistance this year. We have one policy expert who is responsible for 535 members of Congress and a dozen federal agencies. We have just two community development colleagues for a population of 500,000 Sikh Americans.
In 2016, special interest organizations with budgets ten times our size will continue to try to distort Sikh history in America. Our children will still be ignored by educators and in classrooms across the country. The U.S. Department of Defense, our nation’s largest employer, will continue to religiously discriminate. As community anxiety mounts around political fear and backlash, we must invest even more in the fight for justice. If you support our work and you’re proud of our success, will you help make the rocks that we put into our slingshot bigger for next year? Donate today: www.sikhdonate.org
