Service Above Self: From Rotary Club to 25 Years of Service at Saheli, Rita Shah Shares What's Next in Her Powerful Journey
“I Admire all Women of the world. I am woman, mother, wife, daughter, daughter in-law and Mother-in–law. It took whole village to raise me in a human being that I am today.” Today’s woman dreamer, Rita Shah, is a true community service leader. From President of the Burlington Breakfast Rotary Club to 25 years at Saheli to founding the Friends of Indian Senior Citizen Organization, Rita has touched many lives along the way through her compassion and dedication to service. She shares the lessons she learned from the different mentors in her life, and what’s next for her!
1) Tell us your story. You have worked with amazing people along the way of your journey. Who are some of the influential people in your life?
I Admire all Women of the world. I am woman, mother, wife, daughter, daughter in-law and Mother-in–law. It took whole village to raise me in a human being that I am today.
I am very grateful to my parents, who instilled values that was very important for them. Do unto others, that you would like to be done to you and what goes around comes around – principal of Karma. I am also very thankful to my siblings and her family, Varsha and Bhavesh Shah and our extended family in Boston area. I have been lucky to get blessings of thousands of families, who has been helped by Saheli over last 25 years.
I am very thankful to my Uncle C. K Shah and aunt, who were my god parents, when I moved in to this country at young age of 16 and help guide my life in positive thinking.
Also getting married at 19, my life partner Rajesh Shah has played a key role in supporting me become the individual who I am today, who wanted to make a difference in the world. He supported me during my study for my bachelor, Master’s degree and pursuant of Licensed clinical social worker at Simmons, as my work at Saheli has made me realize that family/couple counseling was very much needed in our community to make our families stronger in this country without support system of extended family that we have back in our home country. My Kids Nidhi and Neha has been great daughters/friends, who has supported me in my work and followed in my footsteps of serving communities by working in healthcare field, while they recover their patient’s life every day. Also our son-in-laws, Rushin and Rahul and our grandchildren Kavya and Viaan, has brought great deal of happiness in our lives.
Gouri and Usha at Saheli has been a great mentor for me in my personal and professional life to guide me to support thousands of women/men who were survivors of domestic violence over last 25 years. All of my colleagues at Saheli, who has crossed my path over last 25 years have supported our work in the community has played a key role in making me who I am today.
2) You have led and worked with multiple nonprofits. You are the President of Burlington Breakfast Rotary Club, and served Saheli for over 25 years. Tell us more about your community service work, and some of the lessons you learned along the way?
I have worked for multiple corporations for Thirty-five years as Network Engineer, Actuarial Analyst, Sales Analyst and lastly as Co- Executive Director of Saheli. I have enjoyed volunteering for various boards on different capacity as president, vice president to a Director for many of these organizations are across Massachusetts like CHNA15(Community Health Network Alliance), India Association of Greater Boston, Saheli Boston, Indian American forum for political education, Aspire and Shishu Bharati. In my work with Saheli with Meena, allowed me to help train Burlington, Billerica and surrounding town’s Police officers with “South Asian Cultural Awareness training” to total of 635 officers. I have been working with Saheli (community based, non-profit, grass root organization) since 1996 to help address the need of South Asian women and their children through culturally competent crisis intervention and individual and group counseling, advocacy and outreach. Saheli is playing a key role in South Asian women with empowerment to help them fight the domestic violence in their lives and help the next generation women to be able to stand on their feet physically, mentally and financially
I was fortunate to start a nonprofit called Friends of Indian Senior Citizen Organization(FISCO) in 2010 for South Asian Senior Citizen that serves all over Massachusetts. We have 35-40 South Asian seniors coming to the senior center regularly in last 10 years. We have 185 families, who are members for this group. This program provides social networking, exercise program, yoga program, free lunch sponsored by Minuteman senior services. This helped them come out of depression and isolation to decrease the need to go to doctors, ultimately helping decrease the cost of health care. We have replicated this program in two other towns like Bedford and Lexington. I have been awarded as “unsung Heroine of Massachusetts in 2011.” Last month I was awarded as “volunteer of the year” by ASPIRE organization. I have been nominated as “women of the Year” two times by India New England News. I have been chosen by Women of Color Network for National Advanced Leadership Program.
As a President of Burlington Breakfast Rotary Club, 2020-2021, A “small but mighty Rotary Club” with 14 active members committed to our motto of “Service Above Self” and focused on “enriching Burlington” through a variety of community service projects. Burlington COA with our Technology Assistance Program; Burlington Boy Scouts troop supplies; Girl Scouts annual cookie sales; People Helping People food pantry, Pumpkin Patch and Wish Tree at the Mall; funding for webinars conducted by Burlington Youth and Family Services; personal protective PPEs for the Fire and Police Departments; and assistance provided the Emergency Medical Corps; and, until recently we funded museum passes which were made available at the Burlington Public Library.
3) What is next for you? What is your next big dream?
I have enjoyed my work in the community and am very thankful for every single person, who has played a role to make me who I am today.
As I just retired from Saheli, I am starting my spiritual journey to help my soul reach to the Nirvana/Moksha by following my spiritual gurus. www.dadabhagwan.org and sister Shivani’s teachings at BrahmaKumari’s. Also as part of these teachings, I would like to ask forgiveness of anybody who might have been hurt by me unintentionally any way physically, mentally or emotionally. As teaching tells us that we all are souls on this earth to fulfill our karma’s with each other and we will leave this earth, once we have finished all our karma’s. I would highly recommend everybody to check out this free information, it has really helped me personally and professionally to improve my peace and happiness in the world.
Thank you so much Rita for sharing your powerful story with us! We are excited to have you in our global women’s network!
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