In the midst of another difficult year with the pandemic, we have been so fortunate to be able to continue building a space for our community to come together.

This has been a momentous year for SAADA, with the publication of Our Stories and our recent $1M investment from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Here are just a few other SAADA highlights from 2021:


We added the 4,537th item to SAADA's archive this year, including this photograph of Congressman Dalip Singh Saund being greeted at Palam Airport in New Delhi.

Containing rare and valuable photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, oral history interviews, digital materials, and other ephemera, SAADA's archive enables artists, academics, filmmakers, journalists, students, and community members to write books, create new content, and shape public understanding about our community.

This year the SAADA archive also received its 1,000,000th visitor!


SAADA's Archival Creators Fellows have continued their important work to ensure that the archival record includes the stories and perspectives of marginalized groups within the South Asian American community.

Our six 2020-21 fellows wrapped up their projects and nine 2021-22 fellows started theirs, including three fellows specifically working to document South Asian American experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past three years, this program has supported fellows sharing stories of Queer Bangladeshi asylum seekers, Indo-Guyanese immigrants, South Asian American experiences of incarceration, Ambedkarite political organizing, and so many more voices from our community that need to be heard.

It is an honor for SAADA to be part of this work.


Our Stories is now in 1,721 schools, libraries, and homes across the country and our goal is to get this book into the hands of as many young South Asian Americans as possible in the year ahead.

If you've held this book, you know how life-changing it feels to hold a nearly 500-page testament to our community's belonging in your hands.

As Alisha wrote in her review of Our Stories on Goodreads:
"It's quite something to read about your own legacy as written by people who share it with you. I'd love to share it with you too!"


And finally, how could I end without mentioning the $1,000,000 (!!!) investment in SAADA by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation?

In SAADA's early years, when traditional funding agencies declared our work "too niche," it was our community that supported us and made our work possible.

For the past thirteen years, we have been a small and dedicated team working toward a transformative vision—ensuring that South Asian Americans are included in the American story: past, present, and future.

Now, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is demonstrating their belief in our vision by handing us a key to unlock the full potential of what we have built together.

This $1,000,000 investment in SAADA is both a validation of what we have achieved and an opportunity for us to build something bigger and even more impactful.

♡ Make your gift now! ♡

If you've read this far it's because, like us, you are true believers in SAADA's work to ensure that the American story includes each and every one of us.

SAADA donors are who make this work possible. We'd love for you to join us.

Please make your pledge of $5/month or one-time gift of $50 to help us make the year ahead SAADA's best year yet.

♡ Make your gift now! ♡

Thank you! ♥