Kim Kaur (she/her)
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
Kim Kaur has been working for 17 years to help people with drug and alcohol addictions. For 16 of those years, she's held different jobs in this field, focusing on strategies that aim to keep people safe from harm. Right now, she's pushing for services that better understand and cater to the cultural needs of communities where addiction is hidden.
She struggled with her own life journey of drug addiction for 17 years after leaving an abusive, arranged marriage. Her journey encountered trauma throughout and no guidance which resulted in her being so low, that others took advantage and secretly gave her drugs but with her strength and resilience she came out the other side.
As a South Asian woman, she knows the stigma and shame that can come with addiction, especially for women in her community. To tackle this, she co-founded SAFIR*. The organisation's goal is to create a supportive environment that respects and uplifts women to and encourages honest discussions on taboo subjects.
Ultimately, SAFIR* aims to empower South Asian women to share their personal experiences with addiction, since this topic is often kept under wraps in their communities.
Poonum Chauhan (she/her)
Co-Founder
Co-Founder
Poonum is a keen advocate and believer in harm reduction as part of a recovery path, and cites this as one of the main reasons she is still alive today.
While her twenty-plus year career is as a Creative, her lived experiences with trauma, abuse, addiction and recovery has brought her to a space of wanting to help others who suffer with shame, stigma and living in silence, without the support that is so heavily needed, and a system that doesn’t represent the people that need help.
