This is my 6th year running for Asha. Maybe next year I will have the 7 year itch. But this year, I plan to run 52 km and raise Rs 1000 per km for Asha for Education, a non-profit I volunteer with. The 52 km is through the following races - TCS World 10k, Kaveri Trail half (21k) and Auroville half. Since a half doesn't quite feel complete, I will do 2 of them to compensate. This will be the year of the best half!..:) Half-measures don't quite cut it in education though. Asha, however, goes the whole distance in terms of supporting around 300 projects imparting quality education through about 70 chapters worldwide. Asha Bangalore supports 4 projects - two at Timbaktu Collective and one each at Thulir and Sita School. I have been a volunteer with Asha for 6 years now and have always been amazed by the kind of projects that Asha supports and the way it functions. Asha is a zero-overhead, completely volunteer driven, decentralized, non-hierarchical organization. The accountability and transparency in Asha is of a very high bar - all meeting minutes are loaded to the website and all financial information is readily available.

Still, the problem of imparting universal quality education is a very hard problem. It is in this context that I appeal to you to loosen your purse strings and donate generously to provide for children studying in Asha-supported schools. I am donating Rs 10,000 towards achieving my goal of Rs 52,000. Please step up and donate to this cause. Suggested amounts are Rs 500, 1000 or 2000 (or $25, 50 or 100) but feel free to donate whatever you are comfortable donating. Somewhere in the neighborhood, few children will be grateful and sometime in the future, a society will be better. Let's do our bit...:)

Thanks to 11 supporters who have helped me raise Rs.45000 towards my goal of Rs.52,000

PS: Donations is Indian rupees are tax-deductible under Section 80G and in dollars under 501(c)(3).