Running with Asha
Asha for Education is a volunteer run organization aiming to catalyze socio-economic change in India through education. The objectives of the group are:
- To provide access to education for underprivileged children in India
- To promote universal education and decrease child labor
- To support grass roots initiatives in deprived and marginalized communities in India
- To address, whenever possible, other issues affecting human life such as health care, environmental and socio-economic issues, women's issues, human rights issues, etc.
As a part of Team Asha this runner has committed to meet the above objectives through your support. Please read the runner's personal statement below and use the donate button on the right to make a contribution to the runner's objective.
Balaji Nagarajan
UPDATE: Thanks a lot for all your support of my half marathon run. With your support, I was able to successfully complete the 13.1 miler today (Dec 13, 2009) at the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon. The entire Asha team would like to sincerely thank you for your generosity.
Thanks for taking the time to visit my page.
I will be running the White Rock Half Marathon in Dallas on the 13th of December, 2009. This will be my third half marathon but my first one with Team Asha. I have always wanted to run and run long but this run will be special for me as there will be meaning behind every mile I run. I am pledging to raise a total of $1300 ($100 for every mile) for Asha to support their education projects in India. A list of Asha’s current projects can be found here: http://www.ashanet.org/dallas/projects/index.html
The cause
Education is a great gift that one can give to others. The value of this gift will be infinitely greater if we could provide it to those who are not as privileged as many of us are. I am sure we all feel very thankful for the good education that we received which helped us become what we are now. But unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the millions of children in India who can’t go to schools because they can’t afford it. Together we could bring a change in their lives by lending them a helping hand.
What you can do
I would be very grateful if you could join me in support of this worthy cause and help me reach my fund raising goal. Any contribution is welcome. Your dollars will go a long way irrespective of the amount. Asha is an extremely low-overhead (<1%) organization and almost all of your dollars will go directly to the cause.
Just to give you some perspective, this is what your dollars can do:
* $10 - Takes care of the education of a child for a complete month.
* $25 - Takes care of the education and living expenses of a child for a complete month.
* $50 - Takes care of a child’s education for almost half a year.
* $100 - Helps educate 100 rural pregnant women on infant health.
* $250 - Takes care of a year’s education and living costs of an under privileged child.
* $500 - Funds the education of a 10 year old girl until she finishes high school.
Contributions to Asha are 100% tax deductible in the US (under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code), and 50% tax deductible in India (under section 80G of the Income tax act)
Thanks again.
Run Bujji Run!!!
get ‘errr done, Bajji!