About Turning Point
Turning Point is a community based, non-profit organization addressing the needs of Muslim women and children through crisis intervention, individual and group counseling, advocacy, outreach, education and training.
Responding to the wide gap between needs and services available to the Muslim community, Turning Point offers culturally competent services, especially in the area of domestic violence.
In a safe and nurturing environment, Turning Point helps women empower themselves and transform their own lives as well as those of their families and children.
In partnership with public, private and religious institutions, Turning Point also aims at mentoring a new generation of social workers trained to address the unique needs of the Muslim community.
OUR TEAM
Robina Niaz, MSW; Founder & Executive Director
Robina Niaz was born and raised in Pakistan and migrated to the United States in 1990. In December 2004, Robina founded Turning Point for Women and Families and serves as its Executive Director. Prior to 2004, Robina worked at NYANA’s Center for Women and Families, Consortium for Worker Education, CAMBA and Safe Horizon in various management/supervisory positions. Over the years, Robina has served on the boards of Sakhi, Queens Women’s Network, Interfaith Council of New York and the Coalition for Battered Women’s Advocates. She has also served as a consultant to the Domestic Harmony Committee at the Islamic Center of Long Island and a social work consultant to ICNA-Relief. She is currently a member on the Board of the Muslim Consultative Network.
Robina has an M.S in Applied Psychology (Pakistan) and an MSW from Hunter College, New York, is a 2007 CORO Immigrant Leadership Fellow and a 2005 Open Society Institute/RCLA Social Justice Fellow. She speaks four South Asian languages.
Robina was honored by Queens Borough Council for Social Welfare and NASW-NY (2006) and by NEMWA (North East Muslim Women’s Association) for her services to Muslim women and girls. She is also the recipient of Women In Islam’s Compass Award and received the Rose Mary Gunning Award (2001) from the Queens Borough President in recognition of her work against domestic violence in the South Asian community.
Suweba Kabiru, MSW, Social Worker
Suweba was born and raised in Ghana and migrated to the United States in 1997. She has an MSW from Hunter College, New York and a BSW from L. At Turning Point, Suweba provides counseling to the women, advocates on their behalf, co-facilitates the weekly youth group, and does outreach and community education. She also volunteers with the Islamic Center at NYU as a counselor.
As a BSW intern at South Bronx Healthy Families, Suweba worked with parents to prevent child abuse and neglect. Later, as an MSW intern at the Child Welfare Organizing Project, she worked as a liaison and organized parents to advocate for themselves with local elected officials. At both theses agencies, Suweba worked to educate parents on their children’s development and child safety laws in the United States. Suweba worked with parents who had open cases with ACS and trained them to be advocates by engaging, educating, and organizing them in a variety of venues. She facilitated a parents’ self-help support group and counseled parents, teenagers, and families on issues such as domestic violence, parenting, relationships, child development, child abuse, as well as other issues that emerged. Suweba has also facilitated several other educational and support groups. Suweba is fluent in several West African languages.
Moumita Zaman, Youth Leader
She is completing her BA in Political Science from Queens College of the City University of New York. At Turning Point she is responsible for youth outreach and organizing/facilitating youth activities.
As an undergraduate, she has served as a Peer Adviser in the Counseling and Advisement Center’s Peer Program at Queens College. Within the program itself, she trained new advisers, was a member of the publicity committee, and participated in its fundraising activities. Moumita served as the Vice President of the Queens College Muslim Students’ Association’s (MSA) Board. As a board member she helped broaden the Association’s ventures by collaborating with other campus organizations. She organized host of events and helped raise funds for victims of Pakistan’s Earthquake, Katrina and Tsunami. Moumita also raised awareness on domestic violence as a campus leader by spearheading the Silent Walk and the school’s first Clothesline Project.
Moumita is a trained advocate against domestic violence and has volunteered extensively with Sakhi for South Asian Women, Muslim Women’s Help Network and Turning Point for Women and Families. She has also been a member of South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!).
Moumita was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and raised in New York. She is fluent in Bengali.
Loira Limbal- Bookkeeper
Loira Limbal is a DJ, filmmaker, and activist. She has worked at various community-based organizations including The Point CDC, The Dominican Women's Development Center, and Sista II Sista. While at Sista II Sista she received training in fiscal management and bookkeeping for non-profits and firmly believes that financial health is essential to the sustainability of community based organizations.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Javeria Arif – President and Founder of JA, Inc. Currently working as a Management Consultant at Pfizer, Inc. at their World Wide Headquarters in New York. She holds a Bachelors in History from The University of Texas at Austin and a Masters from Cornell University. Javeria has experience working with Muslim Youth groups and founded Texas Muslims (Texas M’s) at the University of Texas. served as a social and community organization for Muslims and Non-Muslims bringing Islamic awareness to the Greater Austin area.
Adem Carroll – Board Secretary and member since Turning Point’s inception in December 2004. Former Program Director of the 9/11 Relief Program at ICNA-Relief (Islamic Circle of North America). He is also the co-founder and Board Chair of the Muslim Consultative Network, New York.
Dalia Mahmoud – Board Treasurer and member since December 2005. Currently working as a Senior Consultant at Cambridge Consultancy in Manhattan She holds an engineering degree and an MBA. She is a co-founder of MFPA (Muslim Finance Professionals Network) and serves on its Board. MFPA which helps young Muslims living in the greater NYC area identify career networking opportunities.
Robina Niaz - Founder/Executive Director of Turning Point for Women and Families. She is a social worker, women’s rights advocate and a civil rights activist. She currently serves on the Board of the Muslim Consultative Network. She is also a former Board member with Sakhi for South Asian Women, Coalition of Battered Women’s Advocates and Queens Women’s Network and an Advisory Board member with the Interfaith Council of New York.
Abby Scher, Ph.D is Senior Editor of Public Eye, the quarterly magazine of Political Research Associates. She was founding director of Independent Press Association-New York, a network of immigrant, African American and other community press where she launched Voices That Must Be Heard, an email/web weekly translating key articles from the ethnic press. In 2003-2005, she was honored by the Ford Foundation with a Leadership for a Changing World award. A sociologist, her writing on civil liberties, labor organizing and other topics appear in a range of progressive publications.
OUR GENEROUS DONORS
New York Foundation
http://www.nyf.org
New York Women's Foundation
www.nywf.org
Union Square Awards
>www.unionsquareawards.org
Fund For New Citizens
www.nycommunitytrust.org/page24865.cfm
www.nycwf.org
Queens Legal Services (VAWA)
www.queenslegalservices.org
Wagner
http://wagner.nyu.edu/leadership/sjf
CORO Immigrant Civic Leadership Fellowship
www.coro.org/ICLP
Independence Community Foundation
www.icfny.org
Additional Thanks To:
- Compass Award from Women In Islam, Inc. (2006)
- North Eastern Muslim Women’s Alliance (NEMWA)
- Queens Council for Social Welfare’s Fred Kuo Jr, Award (2006)
- Queens Borough President’s Rose Mary Gunning Award (2001)