Photo Credits:Keerthan Shetty
Asha’s History
Asha for Education is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of basic education in India. Asha, which means hope in many Indian languages, was founded at the University of California, Berkeley in 1991 and has since grown to over 50 chapters scattered throughout the United States, Europe, East Asia and India. Each of these chapters raises funds to support various education-related projects in India.
Since its inception, Asha has partnered with more than 800+ NGOs from across 24 states in India and has disbursed in excess of $32 million. In 2014 alone, Asha has disbursed $2.85 million and has supported the education of 250,000+ kids in India directly and many hundreds of thousands more indirectly.
Asha Frankfurt’s Story
Asha Frankfurt is a group of professionals from Frankfurt and surrounding areas. Anybody can join Asha – there are no specific membership criteria and no membership fees.We are a registered non-profit organization under the name “Asha Verein zur Förderung der Schulbildung indischer Kinder e.V.”. The registration (Vereinsregister) number is 14619. As a result, any donations you make towards Asha Frankfurt are now eligible for tax exemption.
Asha is an open group, with no bureaucracy or hierarchy. We encourage members to take initiative and volunteer for what they enjoy doing. You can ‘join’ Asha simply by attending our meetings! There is no membership fee required for joining Asha. However, members do contribute, on a purely voluntary basis, funds for administrative expenses.
Selection of projects
H ow does Asha Frankfurt select projects?We usually get information about projects from various sources like Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in India, other Asha chapters and non-profits organizations working on similar issues and direct contacts. Asha works with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have no political or religious affiliations. We screen the projects rigorously through correspondence and site visits.
After a project is approved for support, we raise funds for their requirements.
After sending the funds, we regularly monitor the progress through periodic written reports and annual site visits.