Participate to our
Events
We organize events all around New York
FEBRUARY 1, 2022
SAFEST is hosting its tenth anniversary of World Hijab Day on February 1, 2022 Tuesday via Zoom.
In 2013 SAFEST joined Nazma Khan in starting a global movement “World Hijab Day” to fight discrimination against women in hijab after hate crimes against Muslims hit an all-time high since 9/11.
As women around the world gather to celebrate World Hijab Day, we as New Yorkers stand united to support our Muslim sister’s freedom to express their belief without fear. Let’s stand up against racism, misogyny and prejudice against them!
Janurary, 2022
SAFEST is offering free citizenship class. Join us to prepare yourself for citizenship test!.
Janurary, 2022
SAFEST is partnering with WeSpeakNYC to offer free English Conversation Class. Join us to improve your English-speaking skills, learn about city services and make new friends.
JANUARY 7, 2022
Our Bangladeshi American community is extremely concerned as we hear horror stories from our loved ones back home about the apparel industry’s disregard for environmental and labor impacts in Bangladesh. We firmly believe that as one of the leaders of the world and global fashion capital, New York, must do more to ensure price wars do not result in human hardship elsewhere.
Join SAFEST and the Act on Fashion Coalition with prime sponsors NY State Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Dr. Anna Kelles to hold the global industry accountable for its impact on people and the planet. Learn how to join the Act on Fashion Coalition, have your voice heard, and help us get The Fashion Act passed today: The Fashion Act — New Standard Institute
DECEMBER 16, 2021
SAFEST is hosting its annual Bangladesh Victory Day Celebration at the footsteps of Queens Borough Hall on December 16, 2021 on noon to 2pm.
Please join us to commemorate the victory of Bangladeshi forces in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and honor Bangladeshi martyrs who laid down their lives in the war.
DECEMBER 7, 2021
SAFEST joins New Standard Institute in bringing awareness to abuses garment workers face globally as a result of the apparel industry’s global race to the bottom and water pollution in Bangladesh as a result of garment industry practices. We support Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act which a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will make New York the global leader in accountability for the $2.5 trillion fashion industry.
November 12, 2021
SAFEST joined New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) and 40+ organizations to urge NYS Governor Hochul to include a plan to modernize the Bottle Bill as part of her FY22-23 executive budget. After its four-decades of success, we believed that the Bottle Bill should be modernized to
expand the number of beverage containers covered and increase the amount of the deposit to a dime.
November 9, 2021
SAFEST asked New York Governor Hochel to VETO the Asian-American Data Disaggregation Bill S6639/A6896 that seeks to divide our Asian brothers and sisters. Our team saw first hand how our brothers struggle in getting their little ones fed, our ELL students are ignored in getting the support they need, and our sisters suffer silently in domestic abuse. Given the lack of assistance allocated to our community, this Bill would only further marginalize our rights to services, a disadvantage that already exists in our social systems. VETO the Asian-American Data Disaggregation Bill to show our community that our voices are not muted, our interests are protected, and our lives matter.
November 5, 2021
The NYC Department of Education began rolling out ‘social-emotional screening’ known as DESSA (Devereux Student Strengths Assessment) to students. SAFEST joined with NYC Parent Groups to demand DOE to halt the program in fear that our non-English speaking families did not receive DOE notice about personal information collected on their children and how this information would be used. Our ELL families deserved the same attention from DOE to keep them informed and give our students the same social and emotional support they need.
October 30, 2021
SAFEST led the rally with Queens Coalition for Solidarity, Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE), Queens Parents United (QPU) and New York City Residents Alliance (NYCRA) to show our dismay about Mayor DeBlasio’s plan to eliminate G&T program. The removal of G&T programs was simply unacceptable without any real parents and G&T educators engagements. We demanded the mayor to empower educators so that they could best support our accelerated learners, assure parents that he has their children’s best interests in mind, and provide students with excellent education so that they can shine!
OCTOBER 30, 2021
SAFEST hosted a Meet & Greet Brooklyn Candidates for voters to learn more about the candidates and their views on various issues that were important to the community.
SAFEST informed the voters about the importance of this election since New Yorkers would have an opportunity to vote on the amendments to current New York Constitution including:
- Redistricting Process
- Request an Absentee Ballot without Cause
- Same Day Voter Registration
- Clean Air and Water
- Increase jurisdictional limit to 50K
APRIL-MAY 2021
SAFEST partnered with W Speak NYC, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs’
English Language Learning program to facilitate civic-focused learning classes for our Bangladeshi English language learners.
MARCH-june 2021
SAFEST was honored to be a community partner on the NYS Covid-19 Equity Task Force to:
- Promote health literacy and language access for our South Asian community to ensure diversity and fairness in accessibility.
- Identify accessible and welcoming community locations to conduct outreach.
- Develop community engagement resources for the South Asian community
March 28, 2021
SAFEST were joined by our Bangladeshi brothers and sisters and elected officials to celebrate Golden Jubilee of Independence of Bangladesh. We wanted to:
- Honor those who fought hard and laid their lives down for the country’s independence
- Celebrate the friendship between Bangladesh and the United States.
- Thank our Bangladeshi community which contributed to the growth and cultural diversity of America.
MARCH 8, 2021
SAFEST hosted a virtual International Women’s Day celebration to raise awareness against bias, and take action for equality, but most importantly:
We wanted to support our sisters who were single mothers exhausted from wearing too many hats during the pandemic.
We wanted to support our sisters who were domestic violence victims feeling alone and crying silently in the night.
We wanted to support our sisters who were cyber victims enduring ruthless attacks online and suffering mental breakdowns.
We wanted to hear their stories and make positive changes to make lives better for our mothers, sisters and daughters.
FEBUARY 1, 2021
SAFEST hosted a virtual World Hijab Day for everyone to show their support to our Muslim sisters in their choice of wearing a hijab. Many sisters joined our meeting wearing hijabs to show their love and encouragement to our Muslim sisters’ freedom of choice to wear what they believe in. Thank you everyone for showing your support!
NOVEMBER 17, 2020
SAFEST and Queens Solidarity Coalition organized a rally and press conference against Islamophobia and bigotry following a brutal hate crime in Rego Park that left a Muslim father in serious condition in front of his wife and children. The rally called for a thorough investigation and apprehension of all the perpetrators of this heinous hate crime.
NOVEMBER 2, 2020
SAFEST believed that our citywide motorcade can safely and effectively encourage people to get out and vote amidst this Covid 19 pandemic. Our motorcade drove through all over the borough to announce on loudspeakers (sometimes with music to get people’s attention) to remind people that the election is tomorrow and they need to go out and vote!
OCTOBER 10, 2020
SAFEST’s CEO Mazeda Uddin joined Bangladeshi Americans for Political Action (BAPA) to inform New Yorkers the 3 ways they could cast their vote on November 2nd, 2020.
October 5, 2020
SAFEST held a press conference to help more than 50 Bangladeshi brothers and sisters whose water was shut off in their house by NYC Department of Environment without any notice. This is unacceptable in a country like ours, immigrants deserve the same basic human right to have water accessibility.
September 18, 2020
SAFEST co-sponsored 2020 Census Drive with New American Democratic Club Inc to advocate the importance of getting every person counted for the 2020 Census. We encouraged everyone to join the force to ensure our community get the resources we desperately needed.
July 20, 2020
SAFEST organized a rally for our beloved Bangladeshi son Fahim Saleh who was brutally murdered in his Manhattan apartment. Saleh’s life was cut short by his murderer, his parents were heart broken. We want justice and first-degree murder charges against the alleged.
December, 2019
“Realizing the impact the once-in-a-decade population count has on the services provided to the immigrant communities she advocates for, Uddin launched the Bangladeshi Complete Count Committee and got to work organizing events throughout New York City, spreading the word about recruitment for the decennial count and getting hundreds of households to complete the census.”, said Abdalla F. Hassan in Getting New York’s Bangladeshi Community Counted.
may, 2019
Since 2016, SAFEST has advocated for halal lunch at NYC public schools. After many rallies and meetings with City Council members, our hard work came to fruition. DOE launched a “pilot” program offering halal lunch for schools (that applied to be a part of the program). SAFEST was strongly encouraging community members to ask principals to be part of this “pilot” program.