Projects

Vidnyan Vahini

While urban India has made very impressive progress to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, rural school education in India never quite made it out of the nineteenth. This is especially true with respect to science education due to the lack of adequate laboratories. Whereas in metropolitan India we see the wonders of technology such as satellite communication and super computers; in rural India we see poverty, a lack of basic infrastructure, and an abundance of superstitions. Vidnyan Vahini's objective is to try to reduce this gap as much as possible, at least on the educational level. The Mobile Science Laboratory (MSL) project of Vidnyan Vahini was conceived to reach out to rural school children and to offer them the means of learning science through laboratory experiments.

Asha-KY arranged a presentation by Dr. Madhukar Deshpande, Coordinator of Vidnyan Vahini in the Speed School Auditorium in UofL on 10th of April which was attended by students of UofL and members of the Louisville Indian community. The need for a laptop or a desktop computer in the MSL was discussed and recently, Mr. Suhas Kulkarni has donated a laptop computer for the programme. We continue to explore ways to help out this project.

Contact : Rajesh Shewale

Nalamdana

To move towards visible positive change, India needs local leaders working from within the communities to facilitate collective action. This program brings together a group of bright students from very low income communities that have demonstrated leadership and a commitment to social change; and provides them with a host of opportunities in the hope that they will eventually take an active role in the governence of their communities and work towards a more economically prosperous, educated and healthy society.

Nalamdana selects students between the 8th and 12th grades that meet stringent criterai and supports the cost of their education for their entire tenure in school and possibly college. In addition, the students are provided with a host of out of school opportunities to broaden their exposure and build on their strengths. Asha-KY is currently supporting three children per year and actively following their progress.

Contact : Rashmi Ramachandran

Shri Sant Gadge Maharaj Ashramshala

On his recent visit to India, our coordinator, Rajesh Shewale, visited the "Shri Sant Gadge Maharaj Ashramshala" which is a residential school providing education to tribal children from around Pune. The school currently has a strength of 550 students out of which, 500 are boys and 50 are girls. It goes upto the 10th Standard. It provides free residential facilities and has four hostels for the boys and one for the girls. The school is in dire need of funds to provide sanitation facility for the children and a reading room to support the library. Asha-KY is in the process of supporting this very laudable effort.

Contact : Rajesh Shewale

Other Asha Projects

Follow this link for comprehensive information on the projects currently being funded in India by Asha chapters all over the US.

Project Guidelines

We follow some guidelines while deciding, what project to fund. To study the details of the procedure, follow our link to project guidelines.