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Anusha Sarvanandan
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Anusha Sarvanandan is a social worker dedicated to social justice and improving the quality of life for all people. Born in Sri Lanka, Anusha came to Canada as a child with her parents. They lived and struggled through the new immigrant experience in Toronto. The family lived and thrived in the Scarborough area. She has completed degrees at McMaster University and York University. Currently, Anusha is enjoying a career with the City of Toronto working in the social services area.
Anusha has stated, ‘Through hard work, my family and I have been able to find opportunity, success, security and happiness. I believe we live in a great City and we are an example to the world of how people from many diverse backgrounds can live in harmony and prosperity.’ Working in collaboration with all of CASSA's supporters, Anusha's goals are to improve access, equity, inclusion and opportunity for everyone to build a truly great community.
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Abimanyu Singam
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Abimanyu Singam has more than 15 years of experience in advocating for immigrant and refugee rights and is currently employed at a law firm in Scarborough. He is involved in advocating in the areas of Immigration and Refugee law and Employment law. Previously he was employed at the Labour Education Centre, a project of the Toronto York Region Labour Council as an employment counselor/advocate and at CASSA as an outreach worker with Poverty Reduction Project. He also has 6 years of experience in the field of Health research working as a Research Coordinator at the University of Toronto, The Sick Children’s Hospital and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
He and has served on several boards including the Rouge Valley Health Systems (RVHS), Vasantham Senior Wellness Centre, and he is one of the co-founders of Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Canadian Tamil Youth Development Centre - CanTYD, and Canadian HART, a human rights organization advocating for IDP and refugee rights.
Abimanyu Singam holds Bachelor’s degrees in Law, Biology and in Environmental Health Management.
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Khaleda Yesmin
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Khaleda Yesmin has a Masters in Management from the University of Phoenix, AZ, USA and Diploma in Community Services specialized in Counseling from the George Brown College, Ontario. She is skilled in project management and community development. She is also a participatory research practitioner; a trainer and a facilitator working with groups with an objective of enhancing their capacity and increasing social networks. Khaleda has worked with community agencies as well international development organizations and is a former member of Ontario Council for International Cooperation (OCIC).
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Mohan Swaminathan
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Mohan Swaminathan is an accomplished advertising, marketing and communications professional with almost two decades of global experience in consumer goods, publishing and real estate. Mohan is a creative writer as well as originator of ideas and strategies to sell, persuade, communicate and market virtually anything. Currently Mohan is Creative Director at Guidelines Advertising, a reputed ad agency in downtown Toronto.
Before moving to Canada just a few years ago, Mohan worked in Dubai with internationally renowned ad agency DDB, spinning award-winning campaigns for Volkswagen, Sony and HSBC. Prior to that, Mohan worked in the Mumbai ad world, pitching Unilever brands to the world’s fastest growing consumer market. A true global citizen, Mohan is fluent in 7 languages and a passionate advocate of cultural diversity in all walks of life.
At CASSA, Mohan looks forward to leveraging his diversity skills and experience, shining a spotlight on deep-rooted prejudices and working to raise the profile of newcomers to Canada.
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Sahar Rizvi
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Sahar Rizvi was born in Karachi, Pakistan, raised in the Middle East and immigrated to Canada in 1999. Her migratory experiences have greatly driven her desire to serve marginalized communities toward ensuring equity and accessibility within anti-racist and anti-oppressive frameworks. Sahar is a Social Justice activist who has several years of experience working and volunteering for marginalized communities in the GTA at capacity building, educational and grassroots levels. She served on the grant making Trillium Foundation’s Grant Review Team and is an active contributor to Toronto-based Muslim women’s anti-violence initiatives. She is passionate about human rights and coordinated the 'Bridging the Gap with the Muslim Community' project in 2008, a hate crimes initiative addressing the incidence of unreported hate crimes targeted toward the Canadian Muslim community post 9/11. She has spoken on the incidence of hate crime, and its prevention, most notably at the 2nd Annual Fires of Resistance: South Asian Youth Igniting Action - Youth Conference. She is also a poet and has written on issues of race, identity, culture, immigration and resistance. Her work has appeared in publications such as South Asian Review, Catamaran: South Asian American Writing, DesilitMagazine and Voices & Visions: Young Writers from Pakistan. Sahar holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing and Sociology, and Master of Arts degree in Humanities, both at York University.
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Muralidhar Canjivaram
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Muralidhar Canjivaram has a Bachelor of Commerce & Business Administration, Bachelor of Law (Osmania University, India) and Master's in Criminal Justice & Security Administration from University of Detroit Mercy, MI, USA. He did a qualitative research analysis paper titled "origins of global terrorism" as a part of Master's thesis and also a study paper titled “Effects of Maternal Incarceration on Child”, emphasis on grand parents role as care givers during mother’s incarceration, losing parental rights due to incarceration and success of mother’s reintegration into the society after the release. He has over 10 years experience as senior administrative officer in exports and manufacturing sectors and 2 years as an attorney dealing with service, civil and criminal cases in High Court of Andhra Pradesh, India. Murali is currently working as retail investigator, specializing in fraud investigations in the retail sector for last 5 years. Muralidhar is also an active volunteer mediator with Scarborough Conflict Resolution Services at Warden Wood Community Centre for past two years. He is looking forward to utilize his knowledge and experience in helping CASSA achieve its strategic priorities.
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Farheen Khan
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Farheen Khan is a Consultant, Writer and Social activist. Currently the Operations Manager at the Sexual Assault/ Rape Crisis Centre of Peel, she is an advocate on issues regarding Violence Against Women. Farheen is a DiverseCity Fellow 2010 and currently sits on the Board of Directors of CASSA (Council of Agencies Serving South Asians) and is co-founder of Way to Inner Peace (WiP) – A South Asian Women’s Support line. Her book titled “From Behind the Veil: A Hijabi’s Journey to Happiness” speaks to her experience as a Muslim woman experiencing gendered Islamophobia post 9/11 and her journey from Corporate Canada to Social Justice as a result.
www.farheenkhan.ca
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Mohammad Hayat
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Mohammad is a newcomer originally from Pakistan and currently working as Partnership Coordinator with WoodGreen Community Services in Toronto. He has served different non-profit agencies and worked with Ministry of Government Services in Toronto. He has 12 years of international experience with World Bank Social Action Program in Pakistan, United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and with UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal. He is also a registered Consultant with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) and with Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and a UNHCR's registered Community Services Local Integration/Reintegration expert. He is an official member of the Canadian Red Cross and a registered facilitator with Pearson Peacekeeping Center Nova Scotia. Moahammad has a Masters in Humanities from University of Peshawar, Pakistan and a diploma in International Conflict Management and Humanitarian Relief Operations from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Pisa, Italy.
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Maya Bhullar
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Maya Bhullar has over 10 years of professional experience in such diverse areas as migration, labour, urban planning and community mobilization. She has a particular interest in grassroots engagement, effective representation of constituent's interests and in helping organizations to better achieve their results. Her experience comes from the public sector and from working with labour unions. She has held research and policy positions with Habitat International Coalition & UN Centre for Human Settlements, American Federation of Labour- Congress of Industrial Organizations and Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Since 2007, Maya has held the position of National Research Coordinator with SEIU Canada. She also has over seven years of volunteer experience including Neighbors Consejo, Washington D.C., a community led project to address implications of gentrification and rapid development in a neighbourhood and with National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. She has also served as Volunteer Coordinator with ACLU/ANSWER Community Working Group on Civil Liberties where she worked with film makers and activists. Maya has been a speaker at the World Social Fourm in 2001, 2002 and 2004. Maya holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Anthropology and International Relations from the State University of New York at Cortland, NY. Additionally, she has a Masters of Science in International Development Economics and Urban Development from American University, Washington D.C.
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Amarjeet Kaur Chhabra
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Amarjeet is an organizer with a labour union and has extensive experience mobilizing immigrant communities and young people so that they can fight the status quo and be a voice for themselves. She strongly believes in the power of grassroots activism and is dedicated to initiate, build and strengthen grassroots movements by mobilizing communities and creating coalitions. She is actively involved in political action and social advocacy initiatives in areas of social justice including human rights, anti-poverty, immigrant and refugee rights, youth empowerment and gender equity. She has led a very active student life at University of Toronto at Scarborough and has held numerous elected positions, including the Board of Directors of the Student Union. She also has a strong interest in electoral politics and have not only worked on many campaigns but have had the opportunity to run municipally for Toronto City Council, after winning the title of "Scarborough City Idol", a volunteer run grassroots project in 2006 that encouraged people with new ideas and energy, a sense of optimism and a little imagination to come to the forefront and talk about local politics. Recognized as a "Promising Tomorrow" leader she is often called upon to share her experiences and empower and inspire women of colour/people with disabilities to run for elected office.
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Atulya Sharman
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Atulya Sharman works as a Community Legal Worker at the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO), which is a speciality legal clinic that serves low-income South Asians in the Greater Toronto Area. He represent clients in several areas of law including immigration, disability (provincial and federal), and criminal injuries compensation. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M), in Environmental law and policy, from the University of Victoria, British Columbia and a Law degree with honours (B.A.LL.B) from Devi Ahilya University , India . He is the recipient of Law Foundation of British Columbia Graduate Fellowship (2004) and POLIS Project on Ecological Governance Fellowship (2005). He is also a founding member of South Asian Law Students Association’s (SALSA) Victoria, chapter. Before joining SALCO he worked on Sustainable Transportation Project for the Clinton Global Initiative in association with a trade and investment law firm, to rank US and Canadian cities on sustainable transportation.
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