ASHA: India Together newsletter, Mar 1999 (fwd)

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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 08:26:25 -0700
From: news@indiatogether.org
Reply-To: indiatogether@hotmail.com
To: indiatogether@hotmail.com
Subject: India Together newsletter, Mar 1999

March 1999
India Together Newsletter Service
http://www.indiatogether.org/

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This newsletter is a free service of the India Together public awareness
and solidarity campaign. If you received this newsletter forwarded through
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Dear Reader:

The March 1999 newsletter from India Together is presented here. Links
to new articles, as well as recent earlier ones, are included here. All
our articles are available for reading at the website through links from 
the main page itself or from the archives. As always, India Together 
requests that you pass on this newsletter to any others who share your 
concerns and determination to build a better nation.

Editors' note
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Following suggestions from many of you, we have redesigned the website
entirely, including a simple navigation bar which provides links to all
sections of our site. Please keep your suggestions for improvement coming,
and we will work them in over the next few issues. 

For those of you who expressed an interest in making contributions to the
organizations we profile on India Together, we have also put up a page
with tax IDs and links to articles about the respective organizations.
Over the next few months, we will gather the numbers and addresses for
organizations in India as well as in the United States. If you know of
specific groups and organizations which would like such information about
them carried on our site, do pass them them along. Here's a link to the
Tax ID page. 
http://www.indiatogether.org/taxID.htm

In this edition
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Two-part section on microcredit
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In countries where informal economies involve more participants than the
formal sector, the poor receive the greatest benefit from development
programs that enhance their income generating abilities. Kumar
Thangamuthu discusses Microcredit lending, the practice of offering small
loans to the poor, which has shown great promise in reducing poverty
around the world and is gaining acceptance at organizations like the World Bank. 
http://www.indiatogether.org/finish/stories/microcredit.htm

Imagine a banking institution that could boast a 97% repayment rate on
its loans! That is precisely what Activists for Social Alternatives, a
microcredit lending institution in India, has achieved. In the process,
the organization has empowered hundreds of women in rural Tamilnadu, and
sent their children to school rather than work. Kumar Thangamuthu
profiles the organization that has made a lasting dent in chronic poverty.  
http://www.indiatogether.org/finish/stories/asa.htm

Editorial
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Sometimes, the dream is everything. Utopia is at best a faraway promise
in a book from another time, but if only in our mind's eyes, imagining it
is the first step. There is an idea of India that lives in many of us,
and from it we have often drawn inspiration to better ourselves, and
pride in the small ways we actually do. If we dare to dream of a better
nation, and ponder ways to make it happen, some part of it will come true
one day. Ashwin Mahesh imagines a different India.
http://www.indiatogether.org/finish/edits/ash.htm

Earlier stories
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In October 1978, a small group of people joined hands to create an
organization that would dedicate itself to assisting the less fortunate
in India. They began with a simple premise - that the assistance they
would provide must extend beyond conventional charity. Now, more than 20
years and $260,000 later, People for Progress in India looks back on a
generation of service, and looks ahead to more years of the same.
http://www.indiatogether.org/finish/stories/ppi.htm

With some hurdles, it takes a special person to see that they can be
surmounted. Mrs.Dandapani and her team at Gnana Deepam have worked hard
over five years to arm mentally handicapped children will basic skills
that make them an asset to society. In that process, these teachers have
enabled a number of them to become less dependent on others as they grow
up. Truly, their lives in service have lit up dozens of lives.
http://www.indiatogether.org/finish/stories/deepam.htm

Years of subconscious conditioning have persuaded us that we need not be
aghast at seeing children and dogs compete for the same food under our
balconies. There's no need to feel any wonder, any surprise, any outrage,
any compassion. Do we really believe that all Indians, all humans, have
rights simply by virtue of being human? Dilip D'Souza calls for a public
reawakening to outrage and compassion.
http://www.indiatogether.org/finish/edits/dsouza.htm

Have you ever felt that you have the ideas needed to change a small part
of our nation for the better, and wondered how you might discuss them
with others, and propagate them? The IndiaPolicy Institute has put
together a web-based discussion forum specifically to facilitate this
process, and would love to have you bring your ideas to the discussion
table. Here's the first in a series of ideas from past discussions - a
draft education policy for a better India.
http://www.indiatogether.org/finish/policies/ipeduc.htm

For your convenience
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You can subscribe to this newsletter at the India Together home page.
Click the subscribe button and key in your email address. Hit the enter key, 
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Thank you for your time. 
Sincerely,
______________________________________
INDIA Together: "we know, and we care"

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India Together has been made possible by the efforts of several Indian
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people. Please visit our website at http://www.indiatogether.org for 
the latest stories and good news related to India. 
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