Just an hour of your time; a world of hope for a child�?

Desiderius Erasmus, the famous Dutch philosopher once said, The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth. Asha for Education was born out of the desire to bring hope to the lives of underprivileged children. It also represents the collective hope of volunteers working together 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. In July 2002, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics estimated that around 45% of the total Indian population is illiterate. We believe that addressing the problem of education is pivotal in breaking the 'vicious cycle' of poverty.

Asha was founded in 1991 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has grown tremendously since then and today has nearly 66 chapters (in US, Europe, Australia, and India) and over 1,000 dedicated volunteers worldwide from various walks of life. In the past 14 years, Asha has supported more than 600 different project partners in India. Each chapter identifies, researches and raises funds for the project partners. More importantly, the chapter develops a long-term personal relationship with the project and the local community through multiple site visits and regular interaction with their activities.

Work an Hour, popularly known as WAH, is our annual worldwide fundraising event to help educate underprivileged children in India. This year, Asha for Education presents the eighth consecutive WAH. The event symbolically began on July 4th, American Independence Day, reaches a peak on August 15th, Indian Independence Day, and finally culminates on September 5th, which is celebrated as Teacher's Day in India. The theme for WAH 2005 is children at risk (includes orphans, street children, children of sex workers and convicts) and disabled children. The project partners chosen for WAH support require larger sums of money to facilitate fixed expenditure on items such as infrastructure, construction and other one-time costs.

After a stringent review process, some of the 18 project partners selected all over India  this year are:

Sahyog, Vatwa Relief Camp, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Sahyog will provide non-formal education in the form of preschools, remedial and support classes for children in Vatwa, Ahmedabad. Work An Hour 2005 will support the education centers.
http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/projects/sahyog-guj/

Aralu Pre-Primary Care Center, Bidar, Karnataka: WAH 2005 will support the operation of the Balwadis operating in two villages, Kamthana and Yedlapur near the city of Bidar. While Kamthana is a town 3 kms from Bidar - with sectioned communities (Aralu serves mainly the dalits here), Yedlapur is an interior small village about 8 kms from Bidar and is comprised of mainly dalits. These centers that have been in operation since 2000, offer a welcome respite to many families, siblings and single mothers. They feel secure about the young children being taken care of well by Aralu's teachers, while they themselves attend their daily routines of work to earn their daily wages and attend schools. Aralu has been instrumental in enrolling the children form these centers into primary schools in the areas with remarkable success.
http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/projects/aralu/

Sarada Kalyan Bhandar, Midnapore, West Bengal: The Child Welfare Project was instituted in 1989 as a response to the disastrous pass rates at the school exams in the area. Initially the project started in an open paddy field and was situated for a while under either its auspices or under the roofs of villagers. The school was also at the mercy of the vagaries of nature, the scorching sun interspersed with torrential rain that could hamper the enthusiasm of the most passionate student. But the hard work put in by SKB paid off, the project is now a proper institution which has shown record performances not only in terms of exam results (pass rates have improved from 33% to 98% over the lifetime of the project) but also the all round development of the children who are benefited by the project. Work An Hour 2005 will support the construction of the first floor of the Child Welfare Project building for SKB.
http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/projects/skb/

Gudia, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh: Work An Hour 2005 will support the next round of funding needed to complete the construction of a nightshelter for the children in this community. The nightshelter will provide a safe place for education, tutoring of those in mainstream schools, and health care for about 150 children, and in turn help around 300 women.
http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/projects/guria/

Mathru Residential School for the Blind, Bangalore, Karnataka:  Work An Hour 2005 will support Mathru to complete their building complex with necessary infrastructure. The school Asha has funded is part of a complex to serve as a residential school and vocational training center for 100 blind children. The complex will include dormitories for boys and girls, a community and computer center, dining hall and kitchen. The land for the complex has been given at a subsidized cost to Mathru by the Bangalore Development Authority in Bangalore as a Civic Amenities plot.
http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/projects/mathru/

WAH 2005 seeks to bring together people from all over the world to help ensure that every child receives the care and education required to live a healthy and successful life. This year our target is to raise over $250,000 across the globe to support over 4000 children in India.

All you need to do is donate one hour of your annual salary to Asha for Education. It does not cost too much to educate a child in India: $10-$20 can support a child's education and living expenses for one whole month! You can make a big difference!!

Asha for Education is a zero-overhead non-profit organization. All donations are tax-exempt, to the fullest extent of the law, under section 501(c)3 in the United States.

Participation in WAH 2005 is just a click away. Asha for Education has a simplified and secure online donation process for credit card payments. The WAH website http://www.workanhour.com provides a user-friendly interface for online donations and access to project information.

Please send an email to: wah@ashanet.org if your company participates in matching donations.

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