ASHA FOR EDUCATION: Asha for Education is a secular organization dedicated to change in India by focusing on basic education in the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change. In keeping with this focus, volunteers are involved with and support projects that are secular and have an education-related component to them. The objectives of Asha for Education are:
- To provide education to underprivileged children in India.
- To encourage the formation of local chapters across the world to reach out to larger sections of the population.
- To support and cooperate with persons and groups already engaged in similar activities.
- To raise the required human and other resources to achieve the group objectives.
- To provide opportunities to individuals living outside India who wish to participate in Asha activities in India.
- To address, wherever possible, other life affecting issues such as health care, the environment, socioeconomic aspects and women's issues.
To date, Asha has supported more than 385 different projects spanning 24 states in India. In terms of project funding, almost $4,000,000 has been disbursed to these projects since Asha's inception. In 2002 alone, Asha chapters raised and disbursed more than $1,000,000 to over 200 projects.
PRATHAM: Since inception, the goal of Pratham has been to ensure that "every child is in school... and is learning well." Over a 9 year period, Pratham has reached out to a million children. An accelerated learning method, which an unlterred child starts reading and computing basic mathematics in 3 weeks, has been in use since late 2002 and has taught over 160,000 children since then to become literate. Universalization of pre-school education is an important strategy for achieving universalization of primary education. If every child can avail of some kind of early childhood education, the chances are high that the child will go on to regular school. Moreover, the pre-school exposure will enhance and strengthen the child's subsequent school performance, in terms of achievement and attendance.
- Targets pre-school children in the 3-5 years age group
- Aims at exposing unreached children from low-income families to early childhood education
- Each class has around 18 children with an instructor from the local community and runs for 2-3 hours a day
- Located either at a municipal school, community space, place of worship or a teacher's home
CARE: CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty that places special focus on working alongside poor women. Equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are the heart of CARE's community-based effors to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives. Their mission is to serve individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world. Drawing strength from global diversity, resources and experience, they promote innovative solutions and are advocates for global responsibility. The facilitate lasting change by:
- Strengthening capacity for self-help
- Providing economic opportunity
- Delivering relief in emergencies
- Influencing policy decisions at all levels
- Addressing discrimination in all its forms
CARE's education programs helped 7.5 million students gain the skills they need to succeed and removed barriers to school attendance - especially for girls.