ASHA: Please Read: On developmental work

[Subramanya Sastry <sastry@cs.wisc.edu>]

Hello everyone!

I'm writing this mail to tell you a little bit about why you should care about
Asha and about Asha's activities.  As part of this mail, I will argue that a
change in the status quo can only be achieved by the collective, concerted and
organized effort of everyone, no matter how little, how small or how ordinary
the effort might be.  More importantly, I'll try and provide concrete
suggestions (in the context of Asha) as to how you and I can help bring about
a positive change in the status quo.

Cynicism and helplessness:
--------------------------
A couple of months back, one of my friends noted that many of us do not
naturally think of participating (I'm using this word in a broader sense than
direct involvement) in developmental work.  I don't exactly know why this is
so.  There are a number of reasons for this.  Lack of awareness is one important
aspect of this.  But, even when people are aware, in the words of Vidhi, "many
of us do not want to think about the problems that exist out there, simply
because they are too painful to think about".  I think this is another part of
the problem.  However, I definitely don't think it is a case of people
"not caring" for what is going on.  I am of the opinion that most of us,
however cynical we may be (I definitely was very cynical), want to do something
about the situation but are overcome by the enormity of the situation and feel
helpless.  For example, I used to think: "After all, what can I possibly do?
I am a lone individual" and things like that.  This then feeds into your
cynicism and makes it worse.  However, I realized over time that this need
not be so.  The fallacy in my thinking lay in the fact that I had these
*grand ambitions and dreams* of making a big difference in people's lives.
Not only was I being presumptuous, I was also living in a fool's paradise.
It just doesn't work.

Little things matter:
---------------------
As I pointed out in the orientation talk to new grad. students to attract more
Asha volunteers, "LITTLE THINGS MATTER".  You don't have to have grandiose
plans of changing the situation.  Anything that you do counts!  You can help
in a number of ways depending on your level of commitment, time and effort
you are willing to put in, and other contributions you can make.  *Everything*
matters.  Every little thing counts!

Role of developmental organizations:
------------------------------------
Of course, all these "little things" have to be organized - only then can
they make a significant impact.  This is where developmental organizations
like Asha, AID, IDS, ILP, Gurukul, etc. come in.  All these organizations
work towards pooling in the efforts, contributions and other resources from
lots of people.  These volunteer-run, not-for-profit organizations worry about
how to channelize the resources that have been collected.  They worry about
how to raise funds and what developmental projects to support, they try to
ensure that the money is spent usefully, they followup on the projects and
try to get reports on the progress of the project, etc.  So, this means most
people do not have to worry about the bigger details - they can pitch in
their little contributions and be assured that it goes a long way towards
helping people.  Asha, for one is a zero-overhead organization - most of the
administrative costs are almost entirely borne by the volunteers.
ALL donations go towards supporting literacy projects in India.

Let me now contrast this with the role of the Government.  Let there be no
doubt that the Government throws in a lot of money towards development.
Compared to that, the money raised by organizations like Asha is far too
small.  For example, in 1998, all Asha chapters collectively disbursed $100K
to literacy projects.  This is nothing when compared to the amount of money the
Government puts in.  *Yet*, these funds go a long way in making a significant
impact in people's lives unlike the much-larger governmental funds (there is a
oft-heard refrain how governmental money doesn't reach people).  The problem
with government funds is that *nobody* really cares what happens with the
funds, whether the project being funded is really needed by the people, whether
the work could have been done more efficiently and things like this.  The
problem is that the government just does not care.  It happily allocates funds
and forgets about it, in short, lack of accountability!  This is not so in the
case of organizations like Asha.  At Asha, the volunteers expend a lot of
effort researching a project: is it a useful project, what are its goals,
how many children does it impact, what are its per-child fund requirements,
is the organization well-established, what is its budget requirement, and
many other questions like this.  In most cases, we require that the project
site be visited (and questions answered satisfactorily) before it gets approved
for funding.  The downside to this is that it takes some time before a project
is allocated funds, but, we feel this is a necessary evil considering that the
allocatable funds are scarce.  After the project gets funded, we request
reports from them at least once a year (and more site visits, if needed and
possible).  In short, Asha tries to ensure that the resources are utilized
properly.  This is one of the primary reasons why the funding by organizations
like Asha have a much bigger impact!

Hopefully, this should satisfy the skeptics amongst you.  Ideally, I would
have provided you with concrete details about the work done by some of the
noteworthy NGO's, and other voluntary organizations like AID, IDS, Gurukul,
etc., but, in the interest of brevity, I'll skip it.   But, I will provide
you web sites for some organizations.  For more information and details, you
can (and should) visit these web sites.
Asha    : http://www.ashanet.org
Gurukul : http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~setlur/gurukul.html
          (A nonprofit group working for Literacy and Housing)
MVF     : http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/2419/indextb.html
          (An NGO based near Hyderabad - does excellent work.  Shanta Sinha,
          the person who runs this, was recently awarded a PadmaShri by the
          Indian Government for her work)
AID     : http://www.aidindia.org/
IDS     : http://www.he.net/~ids/index.html
India-Together : http://www.indiatogether.org
                 (An awareness campaign for a better India)

How could you help? - By DOING something.
-----------------------------------------
Having said all this, let me point out how you could help the cause.  You can:
(a) Spread awareness about these problems and the role of organizations like
     Asha in tackling these problems.  Of course, first, you would have to
     educate yourself on some of these issues.  The web is a good place to
     start.  The more people in the know, greater the chances that something
     will be done.
(b) Join the movement!  If some of you have time to spare, and don't know
     what to do with it OR if some of you want to do something other than
     work/research, then try and get involved as a volunteer.  Believe me,
     it is a very good experience.  You will learn a lot.  You will find out
     first hand about the projects that are going on, you will learn about the
     problems they face and the solutions that they adopt.  This is also a very
     good opportunity to showcase your talents - managing money, researching
     projects, raising funds, PR, selling Asha, etc. - which in itself makes
     it worth the while!  Also, you will meet lots of nice and interesting
     people, some of them very dedicated to the cause.  Personally, my
     involvement with Asha has helped me in a number of ways: it has opened
     my eyes to the immensely good work being done by the various NGO's and
     organizations, it has given me hope that something can be done about the
     problems facing us, it has shown me that action is the need of the day
     (and mere talk won't do), it has shown me that a little effort from a
     bunch of ordinary people like you and me can make a difference, it has
     let me do something concrete other than just day-dream, it has brought
     me in touch with a lot of very interesting people that I might not have
     met otherwise, and, not the least, it has helped me immensely in my own
     personal development.
(c) Throw in a word of encouragement or support once in a while for the
     people involved in this work.  Let them know what you think of their
     work.  Give them feedback, appreciative or even critical.  Being close
     to it all, we might sometimes miss something important, which is where
     you come in in the form of constructive criticism.
(d) Buy Asha merchandise: T-shirts, calendars, greeting cards.  Of course,
     Asha doesn't push shoddy stuff onto you.  Check out the 1999 calendar
     at "http://www.ashanet.org/".  It is very good - it consists of a number
     of photo-collages around the theme: "Images of India".  Everyone who has
     purchased one of these calendars have told me that it is beautiful.
(e) Those of you who are AT&T customers and make international calls can
     contribute 5% of your telephone bill to Asha at NO EXTRA COST to you.
     All it takes is a phone call.  If you want to know more about this,
     please feel free to contact me.
(f) Make monetary contributions:  You can make one-time donations or better
     yet, sign up to make regular monetary contributions.  All donations are
     tax-deductible.
(g) Attend concerts and other events organized by us.  The funds raised from
     the sale of tickets go towards literacy projects.
(h) Become an Asha Star: Asha-Berkeley has a donation scheme known as the
     "Asha Stars" Scheme wherein a bunch of donors get together and decide
     to keep the funding going for a literacy project for a period of 5-6
     years.  You can get involved in something like that too!
(i) Anything else that you may think of.

The options are endless.  Some of them take hardly any effort at all while
others require a greater level of commitment from you.  But, as I have never
tired of repeating, everything is fair game!  All it takes is a change in
attitude from "What could I possibly do?" to "I can do something".  So, *DO*
something.

Hope and optimism:
------------------
I started off my mail with "cynicism and helplessness" and in keeping with
the motive behind this mail, it is only fitting that I end it with "hope and
optimism".  When I visited India in July last year, I used to have these
arguments with the librarian at Hospet (that is my home town in Karnataka)
about "my belief that our generation will see things change for the better".
In case some of think that I am a hopeless optimist, then, listen to what
a friend of mine told me :
   "... one of the really interesting comments I heard was from this really
    impressive social worker ~40years old who very confidently declared that
    the worst generation in Indian history is the one that is in its 60s now;
    that reaped the benefits of freedom but did nothing to contribute - and
    that our own generation seems magnitudes better much more aware and eager
    to make a difference.  Ok, maybe I was so kicked by this because my (our)
    back was being scratched, but for whatever its true or not it is certainly
    very positive and encouraging. I say we believe it."
Indeed, this is very heartening.  It reaffirms my own faith in our generation
to do something about the problems afflicting us.  For proof, I point you all
to the large number of independent and collaborative efforts that are underway
to address these various problems, many of these having sprung up in the
past 10 or so years.  If nothing, this can turn out to be a self-fulfilling
prophesy by encouraging us and egging us onwards towards doing something.
For, if you never start, you'll never reach there!

I'll end this mail with a quote from Margaret Mead :

     "Never underestimate the power of a small, dedicated group of 
      people to change the world; indeed, that is the only thing
      that ever has changed the world."

Subbu.

--
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Visit ASHA-Madison at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~vganti/asha.html