So much has changed since Maitri’s inception in the Bay Area 27 years ago. While domestic violence is still rampant globally, conversations about this scourge are now out in the open.

“It is now considered a community cause and not women’s cause,” said Vinita Gupta, Maitri’s Co-Chair & Trustee.

“It used to be in the closet, nobody wanted to talk about it. Over the last few years, thanks to Maitri, being the catalyst, agent of change, people have started talking about it,” said Shamik Mehta, Maitri Co-Chair & Trustee.

“For the first time, I feel we are not behind the mainstream, we are not behind the global movement, said Sonia Pelia, Maitri’s President for the last 25 years.

“We are with it. We actually have a leadership position in domestic violence, familial violence, abuse, here in the Bay Area.”

The #MeToo movement online and public shaming of perpetrators of sexual assault is changing the narrative and opening up the door to a new generation of supporters for this non-profit committed to helping folks in troubled times.

Maitri Donor Pooja Shah thinks “it’s great that there’s so many other movements that are happening in the space, so that organizations like Maitri can really can thrive.”

Board Member and Maitri Trustee Reni Narayen remarked that “when someone is out here in a foreign land and there’s nobody else for them, so we are their safety net in a sense.”

She and her husband Shantanu, CEO of Adobe, were among the jetset crowd that helped Maitri raise more than $650,000, money that empowers thousands of people each year. With so many cases of domestic violence and sexual assault in the spotlight, it’s clear this epidemic is far from over. But Maitri leaders like Narayen vow to root out this problem to the end.

“Regardless if it’s a well-known case or someone we’ve been helping behind the scenes, to us it doesn’t matter. It’s another client who needs help, or another person who needs help. So you just have to reach out to them and give them the support that they need because we are their family and we are their friends.”