Zara Uddin
Markham, ONZara is passionate about accessible healthcare, mental health, preventative health, and women’s empowerment. She enjoys volunteering her time towards leading positive community projects. She loves to learn new skills and increase her knowledge, as it helps her grow as a leader. In the past, she has led numerous initiatives, including a couple of mental health organizations, a podcast, charity events, mentorship programs, and research projects.
South Asian Women's Health Association (SAWHA)
South Asian Women's Health Association (SAWHA) is dedicated to empower middle-aged South Asian immigrant women to prioritize their health and wellbeing.
About this Project
Communities Served
My project will involve and/or impact the following communities:
- Refugees & newcomers
- Racial or visible minorities
- Multi-barrier populations
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
When it comes to community impact projects, the UN has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These are the Sustainable Development Goals associated with my project.
- SDG 3: Good health and Well-being
- SDG 10: Reduced inequalities
How the project works
The project successfully united South Asian women from diverse backgrounds, fostering recognition and understanding of their shared struggles. This was achieved through the implementation of educational webinars conducted in participants' languages, facilitating culturally competent engagement to address their specific needs. Hosted by certified professionals, these webinars provided direct advice and mentorship tailored to the cultural context, empowering women with valuable guidance and support.
Project Impact
Her Health is a project created by (SAWHA) as a way to give back to the community. Through this initiative, we were able to host multiple webinars on important topics like healthy eating and psychotherapy in the participants’ language (Urdu) to improve the quality of the outreach. The mentorship and support provided by this initiative has had a long term impact. End of project feedback was positive. Many of the participants interviewed expressed that these incentives helped them establish personal goals and motivated them to improve. One participant was able to use the gift card to buy healthier alternatives to basic staples like cooking oil to help create healthier meals for herself and her family. Participants were given access to resources for counseling and therapy help as well so that they may continue to benefit in the future.
Project Mission
Our mission is to provide South Asian middle-aged, immigrant women education, mentoring, and support to reach their healthy lifestyle goals. We aim to learn about the pain points our target audience face through interviews to determine areas we can focus on to help overcome those barriers and help reach their healthy lifestyle goals.
Project Team
The team currently consists of the co-lead, Araniya, however we plan on expanding shortly.
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