Women Making A Difference: Somy Ali, founder of No More Tears

It’s 2013, things like domestic violence and violence against women don’t exist. Right? Wrong. According to a study by the World Health Organization, “almost one third (30%) of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner.” This study was not done 50 years ago, it was published this year.

Somy Ali is looking to change these statistics with her organization No More Tears.  Based out of South Florida, it is a 501c3 not-for-profit group that Somy has founded and runs herself. Her charity is unique because it runs solely on funds from donors, there is no staff, and everyone involved is an unpaid volunteer. Their first rescue took place in 2008, and since then they have rescued 317 adults and 680 children.

Once a victim has contacted them, they then help them find housing and apply for welfare or food stamps in order to get by. Many of the people No More Tears aids are immigrants, so they also will often have to teach them how to drive, how to write a check, and/or how to apply for a job. They even have attorneys, therapists, an eye doctor, and a dentist to care for these women and children. While they are based in South Florida, Somy sounded very proud as she told me that they have helped women up and down the east coast when they have the proper funding. I was lucky enough to interview this woman by phone to learn more about her and her charity.

Somy Ali grew up in Pakistan, moving to India at the age of 16 to pursue acting and modeling. At 22, she moved to the US and went to the Nova Southeastern University and attained her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She then decided to attend the University of Miami to attain a Master’s in Print Journalism, but decided to move to New York and study film. These days, she has quite the resume:  journalist, writer, short film maker, fashion designer, and founder of a not-for-profit group.

When asked about what it was that made her want to become an advocate for human rights, she told me a touching story of her childhood. Her family was very wealthy in Pakistan and she noticed one day that there were a few Afghani refugee children on the corner of her street begging, and she couldn’t understand why they had to beg for essentials while she lived so lavishly. At only 6 years old, she was already thinking like a social worker.

She told me that, “human rights is innate” and that, “you have to be built a certain way in order to do this kind of work”. She described it as, “there’s a reason there was only one Martin Luther King, Jr., there was only one Mother Theresa, there was only one Gandhi” because charity is a lot of work.

Somy is very fulfilled by her work, but also admits to the struggles that a charity such as hers faces. While any charity has trouble getting funding, a smaller, newer charity such as hers has much more trouble. She explained that people have the mindset that if a charity is bigger and has been around longer, it must be doing more good than the charity such as hers that has only been around for a few years. In reality, after speaking with her, I would rather put my money into a small charity because while Somy is making nothing off of running No More Tears and all of the funds raised go straight into helping the victims, the CEO of The Boys and Girls Club of America gets paid $1.85 million according to CNN Money.

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that No More Tears is smaller and doesn’t get as much national attention as other charities, so while it only takes $3-5,000 to provide for a woman and her children who have been abused, No More Tears is faced with the awful choice of having to help only the most severe cases.

On the bright side though, Somy and her volunteers have helped a great number of women in their area get out of such dire situations. She described a story to me of one of the victims, who was from Morocco. This woman was held captive by her husband for three years and sexually and physically abused in ways that shouldn’t even be fathomable by the average human mind. She was lucky enough to escape and contact No More Tears, and tomorrow (November 16, 2013), No More Tears is throwing her a baby shower that will be attended by other survivors and donors of No More Tears. She is even having all of her gynecological work done for free by Somy’s personal doctor. Somy sounded absolutely ecstatic as she told me that the woman was planning on naming her child after her.

Somy described No More Tears as being “very family oriented” and “hands-on” because everyone involved is a volunteer. The thing that most excites her about her work is that she is saving the children as well as the mothers. In her own words, “You’re saving the children, but you’re stopping the cycle.” For her, by rescuing these children from these homes where they’ve witnessed a parent being abused, it is telling them that that behavior is not okay and they will live with that forever.

The work Somy Ali is doing is absolutely wonderful, and I only wish I lived in South Florida so I could become a volunteer for No More Tears myself.

Until next time Divas, wear your heels well, and keep the faith!

To learn more about No More Tears, visit them on Facebook or Twitter (@NMTproject). Their Crisis Helpline number is 954-324-7669