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The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth
Erasmus
Asha means 'hope' in several Indian languages. Asha for Education was born out of the desire to bring hope to the lives of underprivileged children and also represents the collective hope of volunteers working to bring about a change in the lives of these children. Deprived of access to education in their childhood, a whole generation of Indians is growing up unprepared to face the economic and political challenges of the twenty-first century. We believe addressing the problem of education is pivotal in breaking the 'vicious cycle' of poverty.
Asha for Education is an international action group dedicated to socio-economic change in India. In pursuit of this goal, Asha focuses on education, in the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change.
Asha was founded in 1991 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has grown tremendously since then and today has nearly 60 chapters and over 1000 dedicated volunteers worldwide from various walks of life. Chapters in Europe have come up in recent years and chapters in India have grown as well, with chapters at Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pilani, and Asha centers in U.P at Ballia, Kaithi, Kanpur, Lalpur. In the past 15 years, Asha has supported more than 700 different projects in India. Each chapter identifies, researches and raises funds for the projects; and more importantly develops a long-term personal relationship with the project and the local community through multiple site visits and regular and close interaction with their activities. This relationship helps volunteers provide moral support, administrative support, support for networking and resource sharing with other groups in addition to financial support. There is a lot of co-operation among chapters, resulting in the joint ownership of large projects, formation of focus groups and discussion forums across chapters, and international level events like the Asha conferences and Work-An-Hour, our annual fundraising event.
Our recent activities through the groups we partner with include exploring livelihood options, developing libraries, petitioning for the Right to Education Act, initiatives in child-centered activity based learning techniques, creation of educational resources, use of technology for accessing resources from remote locations and for multimedia based interactive teaching material, and importantly projects working on improving the government schooling system (the public school system). We also address issues of health, empowerment, women's issues, economic issues when they relate to the education work we do. The disadvantaged children we work with include children of sex-workers, children from remote tribal areas, children with disabilities, children on the streets, children from slums, and several other groups.
Asha is a non-profit, entirely volunteer driven group with a difference
-It is a zero-overhead group. 100% of all donations are used for funding projects.
-It is a non-hierarchical organization, with its mission and activities decided by its volunteers collectively, instead of by any single
volunteer.
-It is completely transparent (proposal discussions, meeting minutes, financials, site visit reports are all available online, meetings are open to everyone)
Asha raises funds for its projects in a numerous ways: individual donations, merchandise sales, marathons, fundraising dinners, concerts, company grants. All donations to Asha for Education are tax-deductible and go directly to the projects being supported in India. Asha for Education is registered as a federally tax-exempt organization under IRS Code Section 501(c).
Dr. Sandeep Pandey, one of the founders of Asha for Education was awarded the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Award (the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize) in the Emergent Leadership category for his work towards the upliftment of the poor and the underprivileged in India.
Asha, in its effort to make a difference in the lives of children of India, is also preparing a group of individuals who are more socially aware and responsible. Each Asha volunteer is a leader in his or her own right… their contribution, however small, will go a long way in helping us make the change we want to see in the world.
Our hearts, their minds, one hope…. Asha for Education.
www.ashanet.org/mit
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