I started running for Asha 9 years ago. This year I moved to Bangalore India and thanks to Asha, I am still running. Running has provided a link and a continuity that is allowing me to keep my sanity through this significant move between cultures. With every step I have run in India, I am even more aware of what a privilege this sport is and I hope to continue to give back with my running. I am currently exploring an opportunity to train young, blind women to improve their fitness through running with a local group called the Jayanagar Jaguars. After several years being a mentor for the Team in St. Louis, I am grateful to step back and be guided this season by Coach Pramod Deshpande, who has pushed me to achieve my longest distance of 26km (~16 miles) during training for the Bangalore Half Marathon on the 16th of October 2016.

I have appreciated the support I have received from family and friends year after year. Small and large contributions have together facilitated education for underprivileged children in India through Asha. In asking for your donation towards my 13.1 miles or 21.1 kilometers, I hope that I am simply connecting you with a stellar charity, and an opportunity to make a contribution that counts.

Asha is rated with Charity Navigator’s highest rating of 4 stars, with a PERFECT score on both the Financial index as well for Accountability & Transparency. Asha has extremely low (2.1%) Administrative expenses despite mandatory credit card fees. It has been called a “Slam Dunk” charity, and one that you can confidently contribute towards, knowing that your money is going to make the biggest difference it can. I ask you to join me in educating young women, boys, girls and young men, making them not only self sufficient, but also contributors to their families, their villages, their communities and our world.

These objective, third party ratings of Asha are something I am personally proud of because I volunteered for Asha during the 16 years I was in St. Louis, and am still helping after having moved to Bangalore. Such is my belief in this organization and its capacity to make a difference and truly bring hope to children and to the overall status of education in India. This is an organization I know from the inside, and along with my request for your support, I offer to you my personal knowledge of its efficiency, it’s efficacy and the intentions, competence and execution of its volunteers.

Your contribution is tax deductible in the United States. $48 can establish an institution & educate a child for a year*. Just take a moment to imagine that there are children who are missing an education for lack of $4 per month. No contribution is too small.

I fully recognize that we want to contribute to our communities. However, it’s not easy to find any organization, local or otherwise, that is as efficient, with such low administrative overhead and where your money can go as long a way as it does with Asha for Education.  I encourage you to apportion your giving while keeping in mind the powerful act of recognizing and celebrating our shared, global humanity.

An Asha St. Louis project, Hippocampus Learning Center, made a July 2015 proposal with Rs 1,27,000 (~$1900) as the establishment cost for 1 center of 40 children ($1900/40 = ~$48 each).