About Us - Australian South Asian Centre

Our Story

Our Co-founders, Daizy and Sehar came together to empower young South Asian women in Australia to become impact-driven leaders, creatives and entrepreneurs. A community of women who support one another while, we, as an organisation leverage high-impact partnerships to create an environment where South Asian women can thrive.

Australia’s multicultural programming is far behind compared to the United Kingdom, USA and India. Over the last few years we’ve connected with phenomenal South Asian women in these countries who have created safe spaces for migrant and diverse women. It has been amazing to witness from afar – founders of Brown Girl Magazine, South Asian Heritage Month, Asian Woman Festival, Brown Girl Therapy and the Juggernaut – just to name a few.

We want South Asian women in Australia to know that they’re not alone in their struggles. We’re here for you. For support. To listen. To advocate and raise our collective voice. To provide opportunities to boost your career. To provide a platform for you to share their stories. To help you connect with other like minded women. This is what ASAC is all about.

Sherniyan Bhangra Team Performing at Holi 2021

Team photo from ASAC’s first strategy session. Pictured from left to right: Tiara, Dishi, Sehar, Anika, Daizy and Priyanka. Missing Maneet and Erika who joined our team later on.

Become a member

Meet Our Team

Daizy Maan

Co-founder

Daizy is passionate about youth leadership, startups and empowering South Asian women. She was a delegate for the Australia India Youth Dialogue, currently leads the start-up program at Deakin University – SPARK Deakin and has served as the youngest Director for Australia’s largest Community Bank network (NSX:CSH) from 21 -26. In 2020 she was listed on Asian Woman Festival’s Power List amongst women across the world making a difference. She’s Punjabi Australian and based in Melbourne, Australia.

Sehar Gupta

Co-founder & Program Manager

Sehar Gupta is passionate about women’s rights and youth leadership and has served as the Cambodia Programs Director at Oaktree. She has a Masters in Development Studies from the University of Melbourne and volunteers with Bold Punjab. She’s committed to women’s empowerment and ensuring that South Asian women in Australia are heard and valued. In her spare time she enjoys listening to true crime.

Sreshta Sheri

Stellar South Asian Women Awards Co-Curator

Sreshta is a current medical student, with an interest in social change and building communities. She loves dipping her toes in different professional worlds and seeing how she can bring the best of all worlds into her work. She envisions the ability to connect culture and community to bring people together and create opportunity for those in our community.

Zenia Vasaiwalla

Stellar South Asian Women Awards Co-Curator

Zenia is a community organiser and law student, passionate about grassroots change-making. She works in a community legal service, loves to play social netball and read books about love. As a Gujarati-Australian, she has always found connections to culture through garba, ghagra and dhokla. Her culture is also a bedrock for her values and beliefs in creating stronger communities – including the importance of celebrating each other.

Meet Our New 2024 Committee

Collaborate with Us

We’d love to hear from you! We welcome all types of collaborations and partnership opportunities. Whether you’re a founder, creative, social enterprise, not for profit, small business or organisation, feel free to reach out. Send us an email with detailed information on the collaboration at helloasac@gmail.com

Support Us

We’re a team of 9 dedicated volunteers – all South Asian women who are driven by our desire to empower our community. We’ve been working tirelessly to create a dedicated community of South Asian women, to foster connections and to curate opportunities that are reflective of our needs. By supporting us through membership, events, sponsorships and donations you allow us to create opportunities that are meaningful, inspirational and impact-driven. If you’d like to be a corporate sponsor or donate to ASAC reach out to us at helloasac@gmail.com