ASHA-UIUC: Happenings

Sharad Saavan, 2001

ASHA-UC hosted the fall fundraiser Sharad Saavan,2001 on November 3,2001 (Saturday). The event was held at the Wesley Foundation's Great Hall (intersection of Goodwin and Green). Geetanjali - a light music group from Detroit, Michigan gave a very spirited performance of Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam songs. We wish to thank them for the efforts they made in making the program a grand success. A sale of delicious Indian food followed the programme. Be on the lookout for photos of the event!

Work An Hour, 2001

From July 5,2001 through September 5,2001 , 1404 donors from all over the world worked symbolically for an hour for education. By donating one or more hours of their salary, they helped raise $1,02,000. The money collected would be used to fund 5 educational projects in India. Visit www.ashanet.org/workanhour for more details. Donate an hour of your salary! Contact Amit Sethi (asethi@uiuc.edu )

Vasant Bahaar, 2001

Held on April 21st, 2001 at the Wesley Great Hall, this event showcased talent from the local Indian community with performances of Indian Vocal, Instrumental music and Dance. The hugely popular event attracted about 270 people and donations to the tune of $5000. TShirts and Diyas(from voice) were also sold as a part of thie fundraising initiative. Indian food was sold at the end of the programme. A brochure was also prepared detailing our activities in the year that just went by.

Sharad Saavan, 2000

A sparkling performance by well known Shyam Almadi and his troupe from Chicago was the highlight of Sharad Saavan (Autumn Rain) held on October 29th at the Wesley Great Hall. The event received an enthusiastic response with about 200 people present. A food stall and an ethnic Mehndi stall were some of the other attractions of the evening. The event raised about $2500 and these funds were used to bolster projects which were already being funded.

Work An Hour, 2000

How much is an hour of your time worth? For a child, a lot! Work An Hour For India's Children with Asha For Education on the occasion of India's Independence Day. To learn more, visit:
http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour
Each year ASHA organizes its largest world wide event, WORK AN HOUR (WAH), to get all people involved in working together to make a dramatic impact on education overnight. The first project selected this year will dramatically increase access to education to the Irulas in Tamil Nadu, a tribal people living mainly in Thiruvallur district, with near 100% illiteracy. The second project - VOICE - will build a non formal education center and vocational training center for the street children of Mumbai. The third selected project gives the children of Jaisalmer district a chance to learn by building 15 schools. All projects considered are ensured to be genuine and in urgent need and follow strict guidelines of reporting and monitoring. To get involved with our chapter's efforts, contact Amit Sethi( asethi@uiuc.edu ).

Vasant Bahaar, 2000

ASHA's spring fund-raiser - Vasant Bahaar (Flowering of Spring) was held on April 29th,2000 at the University YMCA. There was local talent on display with enjoyable performances of Indian music - vocal and instrumental, and dance. There were mouth-watering dishes to be sampled as well and the speed with which they got over was unbelievable. ASHA merchandise - T-shirts, calendars, etc. - were on sale. About 225 people turned up for the event. The total collections from the event were $2570.00. This will help us support at least one new project for the coming year. A brochure was brought out on the occasion detailing our activities over the last year.

Orissa Cyclone Relief Efforts

(A campaign by Indian Students Association & Asha-Urbana-Champaign) On Deceber 6, 1999, visitors to the Illini Union Quad could sample delicious Indian food for lunch. And they knew they were reaching out across the miles to lend a helping hand to the countless millions devastated by the cyclones that hit the coastal state of Orissa on October 29. Thank you for letting us know you care. All donations were sent to Ramakrishna Mission, which had relief teams working in Orissa.

Sharad Saavan ,1999

ASHA's fund-raiser for Fall - Sharad Saavan (Autumn Rain) - was held on 23rd October, 99 at the University YMCA. Shyam Amladi and his group from Chicago presented a program of light and semi-classical Indian music from different regions of India. The event got an enthusiastic response from the local community with an attendance of about 200. Food and a Mehndi stall were the other attractions.

Orientation Picnic, 1999

An orientation program was held on the 20th of September, 1999 at the University YMCA hall to welcome the new Asha members and to introduce them to the goals, activities and functioning of our chapter. We welcomed about 20 new members. Saurabh and Ranjini spoke about the basic philosophy of Asha, Anu spoke about the projects we have undertaken, Trudy spoke about the fund-raising activities, Prasad gave some information about how our finances are managed, and Madhu told about the community service projects Asha has undertaken in the local Urbana-Champaign community. We had a vote of thanks for Mariam of Mumbai Masala for making the telecast of the World Cup cricket possible. We also heard from Chetana about Spicmacay and there was signup sheet for new Spicmacay volunteers. The postscript file of the presentations is here .

Work An Hour, 1999

ASHA-UC joined hands with ASHA chapters all over the world in raising funds for 3 projects in India by donating one hour of one's labor on the eve of India's independence day. The event was a great success with $51918 being raised through a total of 1161 donors. A big thank you to all those who joined the Asha family in helping in this venture. For more details about the program, visit the asha website .

Quad Day, 1999

Asha-UC put up a booth at the Quad Day, the annual occasion where all the registered student organizations of the campus publicize their activities to the university community. We had a steady stream of students, faculty and other members from the community dropping in at our stall and had about 80 people signing up to join in our chapter. Asha fliers and complimentary Asha bookmarks were handed to the visitors.

World Cup Cricket, 1999

ASHA and Mumbai Masala showed the World Cup Cricket matches in May-June 1999. The profits from the ticket sales will go to funding future ASHA projects.

Vasanth Bahaar, 1998

ASHA had its first fund-raiser - Vasant Bahaar - on May 2nd at the Channing-Murray Foundation. The event had local cultural and culinary talent on display with people being able to sample Indian songs and dances and light Indian snacks. It attracted a very enthusiastic crowd of about 200. The space ran out quite fast, and so did the Samosas. It made us think that we should plan on holding future events in a bigger place. For all those who showed up and encouraged us by your presence, a big thank you. We need your support on every mile of the road and are grateful for it.

Miscellaneous, 1998

ASHA put up a booth at Foellinger Hall on the occasion of India Nite organized by the Indian Students Association on 3rd and 4th April, 1999. We drew quite a few visitors and informed them of our activities. Quite a number signed up to be included in our mailing list and we collected contributions from some.

ASHA-UIUC's Publicity and Fund-raising volunteers have been at it doing a door-to-door campaign among the local area businesses. This work has been going on from the beginning of spring break and the first round of the campaign is to end this week. This will be followed by follow-up calls to interested businesses and/or mail campaign.

Upcoming events and need for volunteers

We urgently need helping hands for these activities. In any of them, if you are up for it, please send mail to the respective contact.

Fall Fund-raising: Work on the details of the Fall Fund-raiser, which has been tentatively decided as an educational/social event, with a speaker to be invited to give a talk on a relevant topic/social issue. Contact: Neeraj Prakash Jayaraman(jayarama@uiuc.edu ) or Shankarjee ( skrshnmr@uiuc.edu ).
Community Service: Volunteer in the educational projects in the local community. Two possibilities are the Urbana Adult Education Center and the Don Moyers Club. Contact: Madhu Viswanathan ( mviswana@uiuc.edu ).
Donor database: Maintain a database of all our donors so far and maintain contact with them through thank-you letters, sending them our newsletter, etc. Contact: Vandana (vvenkat@uiuc.edu)
Newsletter: Put together a newsletter containing information about our projects, our goals and other articles pertaining to literacy in India. The first newsletter is slated for the end of August. Contact: Vandana ( vvenkat@uiuc.edu ).

Call for new project proposals

ASHA-UC is currently looking out for projects to take up in the coming year. If you know of any deserving projects, please take a look at our projects page for details about how one can apply.

ASHA & Amazon

ASHA has enrolled in the Associates Program with Amazon, the online bookstore. Through this, you can donate upto 15% of your purchase amount to the education projects in India, at no extra cost to you. If you want to know how, please click here .

ASHA - University of Illinois