Download pdf - Asha for Education

Mekala Krishnan
Manisha Bhattacharya
mk399@cornell.edu
mb428@cornell.edu
The core philosophy of Asha for Education is the promotion of education as a catalyst for socioeconomic change
in the developing world. As part of an international organization dedicated to providing education to underprivileged
children in India, Asha volunteers work to fund over 350 schools in India through the efforts of over a
thousand members the world over.
Asha Cornell is one of many Asha chapters, drawing its members from Ithaca and the Cornell graduate
and undergraduate communities. Central to our efforts to directly support educational opportunities for underserved
communities in India are our fundraising activities, which usually consist of a concert in the fall semester and
an authentic elaborate Indian dinner in the spring. In 2008, our fundraising efforts allowed us to contribute more
than $10,000 to various education projects in India.
Over the last year, Asha Cornell has successfully carried out two fundraising events, welcomed many new
members and even won two awards for our community efforts! Our 2008 Spring Dinner was held at the Women’s
Community Building in the Commons and was a huge success. Many volunteers worked extremely hard to put
together this dinner for 350 people, who enjoyed the delicious and authentic home-style Indian food. We’d like
to thank all the cooks, volunteers and Asha members for putting together this great event! For our fall concert, we
hosted the Hindi-English fusion a cappella group Penn Masala, a unique ensemble from the University of Pennsylvania.
This event was particularly successful in helping Asha reach the undergraduate population, and all of the
concert proceeds went towards funding several of our projects.
Beyond fundraising events, we also dedicate a significant portion of our time towards reviewing our projects
in India and assisting with project operations. Our volunteers make project site visits to India at least once a
year, and are in regular communication with the projects through the year. Our recently redesigned review process
continues at our regular weekly meetings, at which we have regular presentations describing the progress of
each of our projects, and rotating updates on each school. This year, our project stewards did an exceptionally
great job keeping us in constant communication with our projects! We currently fund five projects, Jeevan Gnanodaya
and Kaingkarya in Tamil Nadu and Langarberia, Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha (BTS) and Institute of Social
Work (ISW) in West Bengal. Jeevan Gnanodaya was also selected to participate in an Asha-wide fund raising
event called Work an Hour; these funds went towards the purchase of a van and furniture for the school. We are
extremely happy to say that some of our projects have matured to the point where they can seriously consider
self-sustainability and start taking steps towards fiscal independence.
We are also continuing to organize and participate in events designed to increase awareness of social
and cultural issues that face our projects and the region. These events include screenings of movies and documentaries,
as well as discussions about education and economic development. Some of our volunteers also participated
in Corning India Day and subsequently visited Corning Community College to talk about social issues in a
developing country like India. In 2008, Asha Cornell’s long-standing efforts were recognized by ALANA and the
Leadership Initiative of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, who awarded us for our service to Cornell University and the
greater Ithaca community. To fulfill our secondary mission of raising on-campus awareness for our cause, we also
participated in campus events like Asia Night 2009 and Taste of Culture 2008, where we were able to talk about
Asha and also offer the community a taste of mango lassi and Indian sweets! In fact, our stall at Asia Night won
third place overall for the quality of the cultural experience we provided for our visitors.
We’d like to conclude this year by officially welcoming our many new members to Asha Cornell. This year
has seen many new, enthusiastic Cornell students join Asha and we’re very excited to see that our organization will
continue flourishing through the hard work of its volunteers! In the coming year, we look forward to stabilizing our
current projects and taking on new ones, continuing with our fundraising and social awareness efforts, and extending
our work to collaborate with similar groups on campus. Thank you for your interest in Asha, and we hope to see
you at some of our events and meetings this year!
Chapter Coordinator’s Repor 3