Because all three are of South Asian heritage and their class project was supposed to be based on a real-life population and, the students chose to look at the South Asian community and address the issues surrounding domestic violence. While the problem is widespread and crosses all ethnic and geographic boundaries, primary prevention has not yet been a major focus of attention in the Chicago South Asian community. The program the students developed was so well thought out that Levy and other SPH faculty members encouraged them to deliver it in the community, where they would get actual experience while providing a needed service for a specific population.

After receiving university approval for the project through the demanding institional review board process and obtaining funding through the SPH’s Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, the students sought community support and soon learned about the intricacies of community politics and negotiations. An agency that seemed a perfect fit for the once-a-week program sessions hesitated, then declined.

The students next went to Asian Human Services and met with Rachita Singh, a South Asian woman who coordinates many outreach programs for the city’s North Side Asian neighborhoods. Singh immediately recognized the program as innovative and was excited about its possibilities. She added her firsthand experience in working with Chicago’s South Asian community to the mix, helping the students to find a home for the program and to attract South Asian immigrant women who might otherwise have been reticent about participating in it..

"We wanted them to gain an awareness of the topics we focused on in the context of how those topics relate and contribute to violence and their overall health," says Rathod. "It was a recognition of their health as an important indicator of domestic violence and a major preventive tool. If you are taking care of your health needs, that can serve as a precursor to knowing you are in a relationship with some problems."

Sessions at the Midwest Asian-American Center opened up with informal chat over chai— the South Asian word for tea—for about a half hour, then segued into a series of discussion topics developed by the students. Singh served as the discussion facilitator, asking broad questions to encourage open discussion. One such question, for example, prompted participants to think of situations in which they felt most safe and what the concept of safety meant to them.

Each week was devoted to one topic such as women’s health and body wellness, nutrition, mental and emotional health, family communication skills, family conflict resolution skills, personal and family safety, and knowledge and assessment of community resources. "It’s self-promotion in the context of health, wellness, and prevention of violence," Chugh says. "Much of the program was simply empowering these women through education, such as learning to recognize patterns."

For some of the women, gaining self-esteem could be enough to change a negative pattern, Singh says. "The way [South Asian] girls are brought up, the very concept of their existence can be in question.You are the daughter in contrast to having your own individuality or self-identity. You go by the father, husband, and sons. This is the way they are often taught to prioritize the family, so they don’t always get a chance to look at themselves."

At the same time, the students and Singh note, South Asians, like all immigrants, come to the United States with a sense of displacement and loss. They are buoyed up, therefore, by the familiar faces and culture in Chicago’s South Asian community. Yet, the flipside of that comforting, insular familiarity can breed abuse, often because the women don’t understand it as abuse, but rather as a seemingly normal condition inherent in the stress of making the transition to life in a new country.

One Chai Chat participant told the group she had a good understanding with her husband: they always sort out the day’s problems before they go to sleep. They talk issues out most of the time, with her "admitting" her mistakes and underscoring this with an apology. A difference may be settled because this is behavior a husband might normally expect, yet the woman unknowingly perpetuates a cycle that could lead to violence in the future. Through Chai Chat, she now knows there are alternatives to acquiescence and organizations where she can get help and guidance. "Now they know about me and the community services they can access," says Singh, an important development in and of itself.

"Nothing like this was done here before," Singh says. "If these women hadn’t gotten anything out of the first session, they wouldn’t have come again. It’s as simple as that, and no incentives would have helped. I’ve never seen such a response. They were looking forward to each and every workshop, and it was beautiful to see them answer one another’s questions and learn from one another. It was not as though we were there to lecture them and tell them what to do. I’m sure they are richer in experience, and it was exciting to see them go from not talking to taking part in a discussion. This was one of the best-developed programs I’ve seen."

The students also say the experience was enriching, both personally and with an eye toward their careers. "It made us more confident about what we’ve learned in the classroom because we know it’s applicable," Sasson says._"Different classes gave me the skills, but it’s satisfying to take those concepts from the classroom and test them in the community," adds Rathod.

Says Chugh,"One personal goal has always been to work toward community outreach. This program provided a lot of structure for what I want to achieve. We’ve all done projects that were theoretical, but this was based on existing organizations and the people involved with those organizations, which helped the transition from theory to practice."