What is Asha? Asha for Education is an organization dedicated to socio-economic change in India. To help achieve this goal, Asha focuses on basic education in the belief that education is a prerequisite for any such change. Asha volunteers raise funds for projects that promote basic education in India, especially those that provide education to poor and underprivileged children. Asha does not have any political or religious affiliations.

What does Asha do? Asha identifies, raises funds for and sustains education projects in India. Asha raises funds for its projects in a number of ways including individual/corporate donations, sale of merchandise (T-shirts, calendars, mugs, greeting cards), fundraising dinners and Indian music and dance concerts (both classical and popular). All contributions to Asha are tax-deductible in the US under the US IRS Code Section 501(c)3.

How was Asha formed? Asha was founded in the summer of 1991 by three Indian graduate students who wanted to play a role in the development of India. The group was named Asha (the Hindi word for hope) to represent the hope that had brought these individuals together and the hope that they aimed to bring into the lives of children in India. In that summer of 1991, Asha's first chapter was born at the University of California in Berkeley.

Asha today: Today, Asha has more than 300 active volunteers across 35 different chapters worldwide. Since its inception, Asha has supported more than 100 different projects in several states of India and has disbursed close to $1 million to this date. In 1999 alone, Asha's chapters raised $700,000 and disbursed almost $510,000 to over 100 projects while in 1998, $132,000 was disbursed to about 60 projects.

For more information, please see the Asha Information Page

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