Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  The other thing is that we have served a very large Tamil population. They have fled oppression and war. We have served the Bangladeshi community. We continue to serve those populations, as well as the Tibetan community and Arabic-speaking communities and Pakistani communities. Many of those communities have also fled oppression and come to this country with a lot of trauma; trauma as a result of the oppression they have fled, but also trauma as a result of not being able to fit in.

Status of Women committee  There are two things here. One is yes, we were actually talking about doing another project based on the research and looking at the second generation. We have one project providing training on forced marriage as a form of human trafficking. Marmitha has taken that project on the road.

Status of Women committee  I will give one more example. A number of young women have approached us. We run the youth group in a different way now. We do more mentorship, one on one, trying to build leadership in different ways. Previously we used to meet them. One of the things that came out was, “I have to get back home because both my parents are going to work, and I have to take care of my younger siblings.”

Status of Women committee  We have had a very good relationship with most of the police who have come into the agency to support us. When we reached out, we had some tremendous support. We also had significant support when we had pointed out certain.... For example, when women have been accused of assaulting men, which is not really true and we know that for a fact, we've been able to work with lawyers to prove that this is not the case.

Status of Women committee  The other thing too is we recognize that housing is a major issue. We work very closely with the shelters all over Toronto and the GTA. That's one of the primary issues. We also recognize that women need their own place to stay. The transitional shelters don't really provide enough permanency or structure to a woman who has already gone through abuse.

Status of Women committee  Do you want to answer that since you did your research? Can you repeat your question please?

Status of Women committee  The issue of violence against women is also interlinked to immigration and citizenship, eventually. One of the the things that made it very difficult was the conditional permanent residency, or CPR, which became part of the immigration portfolio. We found many women...it was unbelievable how many women came to SAWC for help, because within the first year of marriage, the marriage broke down.

Status of Women committee  I would like to continue from there to say that these projects have been powerful indicators of how much work still needs to be done to ensure that the most vulnerable women, who may not be part of any education system, need to feel supported and less isolated. Imagine a young bride coming to Canada, and she has no access to education.

Status of Women committee  That is one way, yes, 100%. The other way is to provide supports, like I said, to community agencies so that we can go out to the hard to reach neighbourhoods to find and support the women that need support, and ensure that they have the support they need through education and through training.

Status of Women committee  Just to put it into context, in the last two years, SAWC has supported 900 women survivors of abuse. That gives you an idea of where our analysis is coming from. It's very deeply rooted in some very complex issues. Go ahead, Marmitha.

Status of Women committee  My name is Kripa Sekhar. I'm the one in the centre. I am the executive director of the South Asian Women's Centre. We would sincerely like to thank the committee for giving us an opportunity to present our work in the area of violence and abuse against young women and girls. SAWC is a multi-service agency that was founded in 1982 by a very committed group of volunteers who tried to support women from the community who were trapped in situations of violence.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Should I go to the recommendations?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will go through the recommendations very quickly. It is recommended that the victims and survivors of abuse have easier access to the exception of abuse in cases of relationship breakdowns in conditional sponsorship cases, especially in cases where they experience immigration investigations triggered against them on false complaints by abusers and sponsors in retaliation, etc.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay. I will stop.