Work An Hour 2008

About Work an Hour

Each year, people from around the world come together in a demonstration of great human spirit, to help educate underprivileged children in India. Work An Hour, or WAH, as it is popularly known, is a summer-long, global, online fundraising campaign based on a simple concept. Participants are asked to symbolically Work an Hour towards the cause of children's education by donating an hour's worth or more of their salary.

This year, the event begins on July 15 and concludes on September 15 spanning through India's Independence Day on August 15 and Teachers' Day on September 5. Fifteen projects across Asha have been showcased in this year's WAH. Donors will have the ability to give to a project of their choice.

Asha's project partners selected for WAH support typically require larger sums of money, more than what a single Asha chapter can raise, in order to facilitate fixed expenditure on items such as infrastructure, construction and other one-time costs and recurring expenses.

All Asha projects are closely monitored by Asha project coordinators to ensure that the funds are being properly utilized and the proposed benefits are actually being realized by the children in the project. The first WAH campaign started in 1998, raised over $30,000 from close to 700 donors. Last year, WAH raised over $140,000 with a donor base of over 1,250 participants. Projects chosen in the past included a wide range of education initiatives, such as educating slum children, supporting schools for the disabled and non-formal education centers, educating children of sexworkers, mitigating child labor etc. This year's campaign addresses the empowerment of rural and tribal communities & centered around,

Empowering Rural India. One Child at a Time.

To commemorate WAH's eleventh year of online fundraising, Asha for Education is highlighting projects in rural India. The Indian economy is primarily agrarian. Through the current free market & globalization trends, more than 70% of the country still depends on agriculture and related industries based in the heartlands. While there are fantastic reports of economic growth and tremendous increase in GDP, over 27.5% of the people still live below the poverty line.

There are several sectors that assist in gauging the well being of people such as agriculture, education, economy, environment, health,human rights, poverty, Right to Information, Women's rights, Child rights etc. In all these baselines, rural India falls short of acceptable standards.

Economic policies of the government has left the Indian markets open for industrialization, while promising jobs and increased remuneration in return. However, these perks have come at the cost of damage to the environment, thereby risking the health & wrenching basic necessities such as drinking water and cultivable lands. Previously existing modes of livelihood have been wiped out by the installation of the new industries.

Ongoing agrarian crisis over the last two decades has seen a spate of farmers' suicide. Several noted observers like P. Sainath, have attributed the crisis to inadequate social infrastructure available at the village and district levels. While the cost of cultivation has increased, there is uncertainty in the agricultural enterprise that leads to fluctuations in the market. This consequently has driven the farmers to extreme poverty & indebtedness. Needless to say, all other aspects of life which is dependent on money is adversely affected.

Children of rural communities in particular suffer due to the state of their parents' poverty through hunger and ill health, so also from lack of social support infrastructure in terms of schools, books, teachers, grievance centers etc. They lose out to their peers in the urban areas should they choose a different way of life.

India is also yet to emerge from social prejudices which marginalize communities of people, the tribals and Dalits in particular. Constitutional rights and laws exist to allow them special privileges. However there are gaps in the Government's efforts at their implementation.

In October 2005, the Right to Information Act (RTI) came into effect. Although this Act has its weaknesses, it has been viewed as a landmark in India's drive towards open and accountable governance. Similarly, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (NREGA) which was enacted by the Govt. in August 2005, guarantees one hundred days of employment, at a minimum, in every financial year to members of any rural household who are willing to do unskilled manual labor. Several groups, both individuals and agencies have tried to put RTI & NREGA to use in striving for a more just administrative system.

Education is seen as a way to empower people to take measures and fight for their rights. Since literacy rates in rural India are abysmal and adult literacy much more difficult to achieve, children's education takes priority with the help of the National Policy for Compulsory Education - 1986, for children under 14 years of age.

Asha for Education recognizes gaps in India's efforts to combat the problems in rural India and seeks to fill them by supporting grassroots, community-based NGOs that work to strengthen the educational needs of India's children. By increasing access and opportunities to education for all children in India and rural communities in particular, Asha for Education volunteers believe that a better standard of living can be achieved for the rural population. Our 2008 projects, detailed below, are based in rural parts of the country and focus on innovative ways of strengthening the school systems through better infrastructure, teaching methods, adequate supplies and well trained teachers.

By supporting these 15 projects, WAH presents a unique opportunity where participants' own income from work can help alleviate problems encountered by children in marginalized communities.

Previous WAHs: 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007