ASHA-Urbana-Champaign is a chapter of ASHA, a non-profit voluntary organisation dedicated to increasing literacy among children in India. ASHA was started in 1991 when its founding chapter was formed in Berkeley to promote basic education for poor and underprivileged children in India. Since then it has grown in strength and number, and today ASHA has about 30 chapters in North America alone.

  The basis of this pursuit is the firm belief that an educated population is a critical prerequisite as well as an effective catalyst for social and economic change in India.

  ASHA-UC was formed in January 1999. It has about 20 active volunteers and about 60 members. The volunteers include students and faculty of the University of Illinois, who are working towards raising funds to support education projects in India. They also provide volunteering support to adult education programs in the local Urbana-Champaign community.

   If you would like to get involved in a worthy cause and make a difference to people in the local community as well as India, drop us a mail .

There are 5 main focus groups in ASHA-UC which are given below along with a summary of their charter.

• Projects :
  1. To elicit project proposals from organizations in India.
  2. To evaluate the received project proposals for funding.
  3. To interact with the organization to get a better idea of the project's needs and goals.
  4. To arrange site visits of the project in India.
• Publicity-N-Fundraising :
  1. To organize fund-raising events for generating funds for supporting the projects.
  2. To spread the word out in the local community about our activities and programs.
  3. To approach businesses for corporate support.
  4. To coordinate fund generation through sale of Asha merchandise.
• Community Service :
  1. To interact with the organizations in the local community which are involved in education programs.
  2. To provide volunteers for these programs.
• Campus Affairs :
  1. Interact with other student organizations on campus to explore areas of cooperation. Examples of such organizations from the past have been ISA, and Spicmacay.
  2. To gather support for the organization from the campus bodies, like the Office of International Student Affairs.
• Database :
  1. Maintain a database of members and respective mailing lists - for the general group, the core group, as well as the different focus groups.
  2. Maintain the ASHA-UC web page.
  3. Send out electronic postings for Asha programs.
  4. Maintain a database of previous donors and send out thank-you letters and information periodically.

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