Welcome to The Asha Project!
The Asha Project began this past summer at a breakfast spot in N.D.G. Toward the end of an already lengthy discussion of education, apathy, and our mutual desire to impact positively the lives of youths less fortunate than us, Thomas and I turned to questions of action – of practice: How might we set this desire to work in the world? What form of concrete project might this desire manifest?
Asha emphasizes education as the choice avenue by which to initiate sustainable forms of positive social change. More specifically, the project aims to expand and to strengthen initiatives that provide children with outlets through which to voice, share, and eventually move beyond their experiences with poverty and with violence.
That said, Asha’s immediate goal is to raise $20,000 for two not-for-profit Canadian organizations that work to effect positive, long-term social change, both locally and abroad, through education programs for children: Free The Children and Leave Out Violence (LOVE). In order to achieve this goal we have: (1) organized a series of fundraising events to take place over the course of the coming fall (for more information see our Events page); and (2) initiated our main fundraising enterprise, the KILI4KIDS campaign, which collects sponsorship pledges for an ascent of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro planned for early 2012.
We are well aware that giving money is often a fraught experience, especially given the fact that many organizations fail to explicitly indicate where donations are going and what they are intended to accomplish. Therefore, we have worked to eliminate in advance any cause for uncertainty or unease with regard to Asha’s practical goal, which is to tender donations of $10,000 to both Free The Children and to LOVE. The Free The Children donation will support that organization’s Kenya-based Adopt a Village program; the LOVE donation will enable that organization’s after-school multimedia program to purchase new audio-visual equipment (for more information please see our Recipients page).
We plan to work throughout the fall to expand both the scope of the Asha project and its partnership network. Please check our website for regular updates concerning events and other opportunities to help bring this year’s projects to term.
We are very excited by the promise of The Asha Project – an endeavor we hope benefits many.
Thank you for your time.
Mike Coughlin and Tom Clark
