Why SHOBAI exists.

The barriers our parents ran into were not accidents. Forms written above the reading level of the people required to sign them. Offices open only during the hours you are supposed to be at work. Appointment systems that assume broadband and a printer. We are the generation that absorbed the cost of that design, and we started SHOBAI because we would rather fix the door than keep carrying people through it.

SHOBAI Inc. was incorporated in New York in November 2025, beginning with the Bengali-speaking diaspora we knew best, in the neighborhoods where our own families had run into that same design. Today, we focus our work on civic learning and AI literacy for immigrant and first-generation communities in Queens, with the goal of expanding throughout New York City as our volunteer network and resources grow.