1 Asha for Education - Providing Hope for Tomorrow Padmanava Sen, July 2012

2 Why Basic Education? Lack of Education Poverty Dependence We need to break this Cycle : 1)Pre-primary & Primary education 2)Back up coaching for students going to former schools 3)Helping disadvantaged kids 4)Supporting the NGOs dedicated to grass-root work 5)Raising awareness 6)Girl Empowerment to avoid teenage marriage

3 Asha for Education MISSION: To catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of underprivileged children. Guiding Principles -100% volunteer run - No hierarchy - Non-political and non-religious - Zero Overhead - Credibility ; Visibility Unofficial Long Term Goal : Every children in India to be educated by 2047!!!

4 Asha for Education  Over 66 Chapters Globally  1000s of Active Volunteers  Raised over $3M in 2011

Story of “Asha For Education” Born in 1991 (Berkeley) Student-driven and Professional –driven Survived multiple recessions and with a good growth rate Events  Social  Cultural  Sports  Volunteer base (>1000)  Work-An-Hour Tradition in July- Sep (since 1998, Raised ~5% of total AfE funds) 5 Asha Logo

Some Amazing Facts about AfE!! Number of Donors so far : (A distributed fundraising) Funds disbursed : >$23M & >800 projects (~220 current) Chapter: 66 (6 in India & ~50 in US) ~10 Chapter has Team Asha Marathon program with some having Biking, Ultra Marathons & Mountain-Climbing!! >1000 followers in Facebook (Won a $25K in 2011 CCG) Biggest Chapters : Seattle & SV ( Yearly >500K fundraising) None gets paid i.e. everything raised from Volunteer Hours All project documents visible in open space Has a good tradition of some Volunteers going back to India and work with an NGO directly or start One. 6

Who you are and What you can be!! Decide your commitment Hours (1 hr/ month; 10 hr/month …..) Decide what you are passionate about (Study, project stewarding, Raising awareness, social/cultural/sports Or coordination) You:  You are Intelligent: Share your ideas in chapter  You are smart: Work with project partner to give you inputs  You are passionate about the cause: Others need to know that  You are a believer: Believe in the possibility of a better world  You are popular: Get your friends in this cause  You like challenges: There is none bigger than a social challenge  You are a learner: Will learn a lot in this process  Hope for the best 7

How can we help from a Distance!!! Asha Atlanta8 The same way we support our family or friends (Care, Love, Practical Ideas and Diligence) A chapter virtually adopts the kids in the projects and make sure they have a better future What Asha Volunteers/Supporters Do:  Donations (An effective shortcut)  Inducing/raising Donations (Few words with your friends/family/colleagues)  Technical Challenges to create webpages, publicize via Social Media  Be a steward and be a direct contact for people making the change  Visit projects during India trip and see a grass-root project  Have interests in sync with fundraising : Social/ Cultural/Sports

9 Projects & Fundraising – How they work?

10 Now What!!  We have a good name – Raise awareness based on that  Student community to grow – Students have lots of potentials (donation is just a small part of what we can do)  Finding project-specific donors among professionals  Separate out action groups and divide the tasks  Have regular meetings to share ideas and unite the group  There is no hierarchy – so own a task and execute  Be mentally prepared to do some manual work with less short-term and amazing long-term return (Visit a project in India, you will know)  Participate in Asha Wide Activities

Current Asha Wide Focus and Initiatives As volunteers at AfE we all know and have been discussing the issues like poor enrollment rates in schools, high drop out rates, child labor, below-par learning levels of kids, sustainability of Asha projects etc. Long term Plans for different Types of Projects Effective Knowledge sharing via calls & WIKI Focus Groups NREGA (Students need a stable family income to continue their studies) QED (Students need to learn the right way) RTE & SSA (How it gets implemented) RTI (Get the work done by Government) Teacher Training (A good teacher is more than just a requirement) Project Partner Feedback (They are the leaders) 11

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