South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) Receives First Grant
JUNE 20, 2011
Chicago, IL, June 20, 2011 - The South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) recently received its first
grant of $5,500 from the Asian Giving Circle (AGC) of The Chicago Community Trust. SAADA is currently
looking to expand its collections by digitizing additional materials. The AGC grant will be used for
organizational capacity building, including the purchase of digital storage space, the creation of outreach
materials, and expenses associated with acquiring new collections and holding educational workshops.
SAADA hopes to play an important role in the preservation and availability of primary historical materials that document the history of South Asian American communities. Its board members envision an organization that will encourage dialogue, debate and discussion on the role of history in the creation of South Asian American identities and communities.
"We founded SAADA in recognition of a critical need to document and preserve the history of this community..."SAADA founder and President of the Board Samip Mallick explained, “We founded SAADA in recognition of a critical need to document and preserve the history of this community. There are no other archives that are working to systematically document, preserve and make accessible the material history of South Asians in the United States. Without SAADA, we feared that this history was in danger of being lost. Our hope is that by providing access to these materials, there will be greater understanding of how fundamentally the story of South Asian American history is a story of American history.”
Digitized materials in SAADA’s collections reflect the diversity of the community, including: the papers of the first Asian American Congressman, Dalip Singh Saund; historic articles about the early immigration of South Asians to the U.S. dating from 1910; pamphlets created by the Gadar Party in California in 1915; and photographs documenting the political activism of the South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY) in 2004.
For more information or to schedule an interview with SAADA President, Samip Mallick, contact: Samip Mallick at 734-716-6621 or at samip@saadigitalarchive.org.
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About the AGC: The AGC, a donor advised fund of The Chicago Community Trust, brings
together individuals throughout Chicago to leverage impact on issues of common concern
within Asian American communities. Since 2002, AGC has contributed more than $110,000 to nonprofit
organizations serving Asian American residents of metropolitan Chicago. For more information, visit:
http://www.cct.org/apply/funding-opportunities/special/asian-giving-circle.
About SAADA: South Asian Americans Digital Archive is a nonprofit organization that documents and provides access to the diverse and relatively unknown stories of South Asian Americans. SAADA makes primary source materials related to the history of South Asians in the U.S. available through its website, http://www.saadigitalarchive.org/. SAADA’s digital collections reflect the vast range of experiences of the South Asian Diaspora in the U.S., including those who trace their heritage to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the many South Asian communities across the globe. SAADA was founded in 2008 and was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in 2010.
SAADA hopes to play an important role in the preservation and availability of primary historical materials that document the history of South Asian American communities. Its board members envision an organization that will encourage dialogue, debate and discussion on the role of history in the creation of South Asian American identities and communities.
"We founded SAADA in recognition of a critical need to document and preserve the history of this community..."SAADA founder and President of the Board Samip Mallick explained, “We founded SAADA in recognition of a critical need to document and preserve the history of this community. There are no other archives that are working to systematically document, preserve and make accessible the material history of South Asians in the United States. Without SAADA, we feared that this history was in danger of being lost. Our hope is that by providing access to these materials, there will be greater understanding of how fundamentally the story of South Asian American history is a story of American history.”
Digitized materials in SAADA’s collections reflect the diversity of the community, including: the papers of the first Asian American Congressman, Dalip Singh Saund; historic articles about the early immigration of South Asians to the U.S. dating from 1910; pamphlets created by the Gadar Party in California in 1915; and photographs documenting the political activism of the South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY) in 2004.
For more information or to schedule an interview with SAADA President, Samip Mallick, contact: Samip Mallick at 734-716-6621 or at samip@saadigitalarchive.org.
###
About the AGC: The AGC, a donor advised fund of The Chicago Community Trust, brings
together individuals throughout Chicago to leverage impact on issues of common concern
within Asian American communities. Since 2002, AGC has contributed more than $110,000 to nonprofit
organizations serving Asian American residents of metropolitan Chicago. For more information, visit:
http://www.cct.org/apply/funding-opportunities/special/asian-giving-circle.
About SAADA: South Asian Americans Digital Archive is a nonprofit organization that documents and provides access to the diverse and relatively unknown stories of South Asian Americans. SAADA makes primary source materials related to the history of South Asians in the U.S. available through its website, http://www.saadigitalarchive.org/. SAADA’s digital collections reflect the vast range of experiences of the South Asian Diaspora in the U.S., including those who trace their heritage to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the many South Asian communities across the globe. SAADA was founded in 2008 and was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in 2010.