Asha for Education is a worldwide action group formed to catalyse socio-economic change in India through education of underprivileged children. 'Asha' means hope -- the hope that we aim to bring into the lives of these children.

Asha-Chennai is a chapter of 'Asha for Education' based in the Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It is run entirely by a group of volunteers.

 

 

Asha News
Work An Hour 2011: 14th edition of Asha for Education's annual online fundraiser, requesting you to symbolically work an hour for education of underprivileged children of India by donating an hour's worth of your salary or more.

Summer 2011: Proposals and budgets for all Asha Chennai projects for academic year June 2011 - May 2012 have been approved as of July. The documents are being put up in the respective project pages.
Work An Hour 2010: Asha for Education's annual online fundraiser, requesting you to symbolically work an hour for education of underprivileged children of India by donating an hour's worth of your salary or more.

Summer 2010: Proposals and budgets for all Asha Chennai projects for academic year June 2010 - May 2011 have been approved as of July. The documents will be up in the respective project pages in short order.
July 15th to September 15th, 2009: 12th edition of Asha for Education's online fundraiser Work An Hour. Please support Asha Chennai's Balwadi Improvement Project represented in this year's campaign.

Summer 2009:
Komathi, a graduate student from NTU in Singapore, has been doing her internship+research at the Panchayat Union Primary School in Pudur (Project-Sangamam).
Nundini, a university student from Canada, has been volunteering at Ekambaram Pillai Street balwadis (Project FirstStep) and Olcott Memorial High School during her summer break.
May 3, 2009: Asha-Berkeley approved funding for Asha Chennai's proposal requesting support to setup storage for library books in all the government schools and balwadis we work with. These books were donated to several Asha projects by Omprakash Foundation last year. Click here to read more about Library Storage Project.
July 15th to September 15th, 2008: 11th edition of Asha for Education's online fundraiser Work An Hour.

4th to 6th Jan 2008: Asha Chennai hosted the bi-annual Asha India conference in Jan 2008 at Vishnupuram in Thiruvarur Dist. About 40 volunteers of Asha India and project partners attended the conference. Click here for more details about the conference.
17th May, 2007 : Chennai Chimes a online news letter for carrying "good news of Chennai" wrote an article about the activities of Asha Chennai. Click here to read the article.
January, 2007 : Asha Chennai has been assisting Society for the Development of the Depressed through Project Vidiyal and other means. We are happy to announce that Manavalan, the trustee of SDD has been invited/sponsored by the French government to attend and speak at the World Social Forum to be held in late January 2007 at Nairobi, Kenya. Click here for a detailed report.
8th Sep, 2006 : Radio City FM 105.8 in a local radio station in Chennai. They decided to promote an organisation working in the field of education on the World Literacy Day and selected Asha Chennai for the same. Click here to learn more about the promotion.
29th Jun, 2006 : RightStart teacher training program was held for the third time between 24th to 29th of May 2006 under the auspices of IIT Madras. This year the training was held as an IIT project with IIT managing all the funding and other requirements for the projects. The training was attended by 66 teachers from all over Tamilnadu. Click here for a report of the training programme.Adyar Times covered the event in there June 4th issue.
17th Jan, 2006 : The ICDS Balwadis at Ekambaram Pillai St. were renovated as part of the Project First Step. The inauguration function was held on Jan 19th. Click here to see the photos and news paper articles about the function.
16th Oct, 2005 : Two new buildings were build by Asha (with assistance from Rotary Club of Kilpak, Chennai) at Sri Krishna Middle School, Thappalampuliyur and George High School at Vishnupuram. These were inaugurated on 16th Oct 2005. Click here to see reports, news paper articles and photos from the event.
10th Jun, 2005 : An inauguration function was conducted at the Nochikupam Balwadi to inaugurate the three Balwadis renovated by Asha Chennai. Members of the ICDS, employees of Cairn Energy and members of the Midtown Ladies Circle participated in the function along with us. Click here to see an articile in Hindu about this function.Click here to see the photos from the inauguration function.
22nd Jan, 2005 : Tsunami Rehabilitation: Asha Chennai has under taken rehabilitation work at Nemilikuppam a village near Kovalam on the way to Mahabalipuram and also support for children going to schools in the Tsunami affected areas.
1st Jan, 2005 : Tsunami Relief � Asha Chennai has undertaken relief and rehabilitation work at Urur, Olcott, Odai and nearby Kuppams to help the affected families return to normalcy.Tsunami Rehabilitation work project has been approved by Asha Chennai. To support affected families visit our Support-A-Family page.

Visit Asha's Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation for more information on the activities of Asha related to Tsunami Relief and rehabilitation.
24th Sep, 04 : Asha Chennai has approved Project Sangamam - Poodi to work with government schools in the Poodi Block of Thiruvallur District.
29th Jul, 04 : Asha Chennai audited accounts for financial year 2003-2004 is available. Please click here to see the full details.

5th May, 04 : Periasamy is a 5 year old boy from one of the brick kilns where Project Build is functioning. About 2 yrs back he fell on a brick kiln and burnt both his hands and feet very badly. His parents couldnt afford surgery
to correct the deformation in his hands. Viswanathan (an Asha Chennai volunteer) with the support of Asha Chennai and a generous donor has got corrective surgery done on his left hand at Raju Hospital on the 5th of May, 2004. The other hand would be operated upon in one month once this hand heals.
1st May, 04 : Asha Chennai successfully conducted a mentoring session for all Asha Chennai and Sowbagya Trust Scholarship children studying in 10th, 11th and 12th standards. Professor Vasudevan (Head of Dept. Mathematics, Vivekananda College), Ashisha a counsellor from Turning Point, Palanivel principal of Kumaraguru ITI, Mrs. Janaki Venkatraman the ex-editor of Aside magazine and journalist, and several others talked to the children about their education options upon the completion of 10th and 12th standards. Click here to see the photos from the programme.

5th Apr, 04 : Urur Olcott Kuppam School received license from the Collector of Chennai for functioning as a Middle School. Since children are passing out of the 8th standard this year, this license is critical for these children.
8th Apr, 04 : Madras Midtown Ladies Circle and Asha Chennai organised an inauguration function on the 8th of April to formally recognise the renovations carried out at the Urur Kuppam Balwadi. Click the links to see the articles about this at several local newspapers: Hindu, Adyar Times and click here to see the photos.

28th Dec, 03 : Asha Chennai successfully hosted Asha Conference 2003 from Dec. 25th to 28th. The conference was held at the IIT- Chennai campus.

14th Nov, 03 : On Nov 14th 2003, the Children's Day, we conducted Kalai Aruvi, a cultural event at Urur Olcott School. Please look up in a week for the web page for this event. Support for this project and this event are provided by Cairn Energy Ltd.
13th Oct, 03 : Asha South Fellows' Conference was organised by Asha Chennai on the 12th and 13th of October.
3rd Oct, 03 : The RightStart Teachers' training program was successfully conducted between September 27th and October 3rd.
Sep, 03 : Cairn Energy India Prt. Ltd. has donated Rs.2 Lakhs for the Urur Olcott School project.
Sep, 03 : Three new projects have been approved by Asha Chennai volunteers : Udhavum Karangal, Trigger and Project Library. The web pages for these projects will be made available soon.
26th Jul, 03 : Asha Chennai audited the accounts for financial year 2002-2003. Please click here to see the full details.
3rd Aug, 03 : TRY (To Reach You) has taken a major step forward towards building its own home for the children under its care and to offer other counseling services. They have acquired the land for this. They recently successfully conducted a fund-raiser (screening movie "kaakka kaakka" on the 2nd and 3rd Aug) towards raising money for the construction. They need more money for this. If you would like to help you may make the donation to Asha (identifying the project for the donation as TRY) or by directly donating to TRY at www.toreachyou.org.
Jun, 03 : Students from Asha scholarships and other Asha Chennai supported projects have done well in the recent Tamil Nadu board exams. Click here to see the results.
25th May, 03 : Asha Chennai participated in the Asha-India Summer Meet held at BITS-Pilani on 24th and 25th of May 2003. Click here for Asha-Chennai team report.
20th Apr, 03 : Asha Chennai successfully conducted a Painting Festival, Vanavil, for children from Asha sponsored schools on the 20th April 2003 at Urur Olcott School.
Dr. Sandeep Pandey, one of the founders of Asha has been awarded the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay award. The entire Asha community is proud his work has found the recognition it deserved.