Work an Hour

Normally, this blog won't have such posts, but since children, basic education and socio-economic development are areas very close to my heart, here's this pitch.

Asha is in the midst of its Work an Hour campaign, that really takes off around the date of India's independence.

What is Work an hour? The concept is very simple:

"Each year volunteers from around the world come together in a show of great human spirit, to help educate underprivileged children in India. Work An Hour, or WAH, as it is popularly known, is a simple concept. We ask you to symbolically contribute one hour of your time towards the cause of children's education by donating an hour's worth of your salary or more. The event symbolically begins on July 4, the American Independence Day, reaches an apex on August 15, the Indian Independence Day, and finally culminates on September 5, which is celebrated as Teachers' Day in India.

The reason I like supporting organizations like Asha are that they are completely volunteer driven, there are no overheads (small administrative expenses are bourn by volunteers), and every penny for every project is completely accounted for. A donor knows exactly where his/her money is going.

For this year's Work an Hour projects; take a look by clicking on any name on the map, here. The complete project details, the focus of each group, a detailed site visit report and the complete financial budget (to the last rupee) is listed. And though it is Asha for Education, Asha tries to look at education in the broadest sense (it doesn't mean just literacy), since its goal is to bring about socio-economic change primarily through the medium of education. Asha is still way short of this years Work an Hour goal.

So, if you like what you see, you can do your bit. Or, if you want to get closely involved, you could toot down to a meeting of the nearest Asha chapter and see what they are up to.