Meet Aashi, Anvi, Ellen Oswal, Saxena, Li | Co Founders of Rallying for Refugees

We had the good fortune of connecting with Aashi, Anvi, Ellen Oswal, Saxena, Li and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Aashi, Anvi, Ellen, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Our journey with Rallying For Refugees, a 501(c) nonprofit, initially started out as.simple volunteering initiative the three of us, Aashi, Ellen, and Anvi took on with a refugee center as we tutored refugee kids for an after school program. However after volunteering at the refugee center we realized that there were many other issues that refugee families faced during resettlement, issues that many centers were struggling to solve all on their own. So we took it upon ourselves to spark initiative for change in our own community and bridge the gap between the community and the refugees in order to allow for harmonious integration for refugees in the DFW area by founding Rallying For Refugees. In just a short year, we have grown to new heights, expanding our outreach to financial, educational, and mental help for refugees.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The road to founding and building our organization was definitely not easy, but the challenges along the way have fully shaped us into the best versions of ourselves. From overcoming discrimination in the community to pushing awareness about the issues refugee’s face, we wanted to ensure that no matter what, we would stay true to the values of Rallying For Refugees and do our best to further our cause no matter what. Some lessons we have learned along the way are that the passion and the initiative for change can spread like wildfire in the community, but the change has to start somewhere. So no matter what it is we do here at Rallying For Refugees, we do it with the hope that our actions will spark future change and initiative to help refugees on a larger scale.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
During the week we would take them all over town to our favorite food spots from ice cream at Somi Somi to the famous Legacy West sushi at the food hall all the way to a fun Benihana experience. In terms of activities to check out, it would be impossible to not take them to the famous Stonebriar Mall and then explore the works of art at the Dallas Museum of Art and then finish off the sights with Frisco’s lively downtown square. Of course to wrap up our week we would take our guests all the way to Vickery Meadow in downtown dallas to visit some refugee centers and help give back to our community by volunteering and connecting with the refugees.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We here at Rallying For Refugees want to dedicate our shoutout to the community around us. Without their donations, support, and encouragement our organization couldn’t have grown to the place it is right now, and their support for the refugees will forever make a lasting impact on our organization’s mission and purpose.

Website: https://www.rallyingforrefugees.com/

Instagram: rallying4refugees

Linkedin: Rallying For Refugees

Other: Email: rallying4refugees@gmail.com