Asha's Beginning

Asha was founded in the summer of 1991 at the University of California, Berkeley by a group of students interested in helping their country. As their activities grew and word spread, chapters started sprouting in far away places such as Canada, Singapore, Lucknow and of course Chennai. Today, there are more than (40 chapters) around the world and Asha is also registered as a public charitable trust in India. In 2002 Asha received worldwide recognition when Dr. Sandeep Pandey the founder of Asha received the prestigious Magsaysay award for Emergent Leadership.

Asha Chennai

Several projects in Chennai and Vicinity have been funded by Asha chapters ever since 1992. In 2000 a group of volunteers started the Asha-Pride project "to make the Besant Nagar area a pride of Chennai". This project was run by Asha as opposed to 
funding projects run by other NGOs. Asha-Chennai has grown since then to include more than 15 highly committed volunteers in India and several more contributing remotely from the US, Singapore etc.

Asha-Chennai has consciously placed project execution before fund raising or publicity. We are actively funding and executing about 10 projects. We have been raising funds for these from individual donations, donations from corporations and organisations as well as from other Asha chapters.

The Coordinator of Asha-Chennai is Bhaskar and the treasurer is Rajaram.  These are the current office bearers of Asha Chennai. 
 

Asha's Organization

The various chapters of Asha are organized loosely. We share the same basic goal of education but our focus may differ from chapter to chapter. Thus Asha-Chennai may emphasize improving government schools whereas some other chapter may emphasize health education.

Asha chapters often collaborate on projects and exchange information about prospective projects, project evaluations and policies. We understand and respect that individual chapters may differ in the policies, ideas and plans for future projects.

Asha-Chennai does not have a formal membership or organizational structure. Our membership consists almost entirely of volunteers who make their time and help available as per their interests and abilities. All interested people are welcome to 
join Asha-Chennai. To register as a volunteer please send a mail to Bhaskar. You will then get added to the mailing list and be informed about our meetings and activities.

The administrative activities of the group are carried out by a 'core group' of volunteers who distribute the responsibilities among themselves. Obviously, the membership of the 'core group' changes over time as new members get involved or others temporarily drop out because of their time commitments. Please see our administrative guide to get an idea about the roles and processes within our organisation.

Our Financial Reports

You can look at our financial reports for the following period online:

• 2007 - 2008 Auditor's report

• 2007 - 2008 Project-wise financial report (tentative & unaudited)

• 2006 - 2007 Auditor's report

• 2006 - 2007 Project wise financial report 

• Annual report of Asha chennai's activities in 2006-07

• 2005 - 2006 Auditor's report

• 2005 - 2006 Project wise financial report 

• Annual report of Asha chennai's activities in 2005-06

• Financial report sent to Asha-wide treasurer for 2004-05

• 2004 - 2005 Audited financial reports

• 2003 - 2004 Audited financial reports

• 2002 - 2003 Audited financial reports

• Annual report of Asha chennai's activities in 2002-03

• 2002 (Full Year) (xls)

• 2Q02 (Apr-Jun 2002) (xls)

• 1Q02 (Jan-Mar 2002) (xls)