SUPPORT A CHILD FROM $14/MONTH

SUPPORT A CHILD – ENRICH A LIFE

The Support A Child (SAC) program at Asha for Education -Bangalore was started in 2009 as a means to involve sponsors directly with selected projects in India to provide for an underprivileged child’s education and or living expenses. Depending on the project’s needs, contributions may also be used to cover healthcare, nutrition and other basic necessities. Sponsors will receive regular updates on the project and about a child in the project. They will also be able to engage in one-on-one correspondence with the child and to be a mentor.

The aim is to support a child’s education with our partner projects. The donor funds are used to support the project that provides education to the child. This is not a scholarship program and we do not transfer funds directly to the child. All funds are received by the project partner and will be used to support the education of the children in the project. For example, the funds may be utilised to cover the teacher salaries, nutrition, activities, building rental, learning materials, school trips etc that will help the children get a quality education. You can become a sponsor for a child in India for as little as $14 a month.

ROLE OF ASHA FOR EDUCATION

Asha’s role is to identiry a suitable education project run by a non profit organization in India which provides a good quality of education to children who will otherwise not have access to it. Then Asha endeavors to find sponsors for this project to support such children and facilitates this linking. Asha follows through by disbursing and monitoring the sponsors’ funds. It works with both sponsors and the projects in India to obtain regular progress reports of the children and build a strong sponsor-project-child understanding and depending on the inclination of the donor communication. The sponsor has the opportunity to become a mentor and friend to a child by writing letters. The sponsor can also arrange a visit with his/her child through Asha and the project coordinators in India. The children are not told that they have a specific sponsor to avoid a sense of obligation, sponsors are introduced as a friend of the organization.

This program is solely meant for individual donors to be directly connected to  an Asha supported project and to a child in it. Asha for Education is not involved with any adoption process through this program, nor is it a scholarship program where the cash is given to children. All children in the organization are treated the same and the funds are raised for all children either by donors of this program or through general donations.

Becoming a sponsor is easy!
To begin your sponsorship today, all you have to do is fill out the sign-up forms available here.

PROJECTS SUPPORTED

Below is a brief description of the projects the sponsored children belong to. For more details you can visit each of the project sites.

ISAI AMBALAM SCHOOL

The Isai Ambalam School is an outreach school of Auroville for the villages in the west and north-west of Auroville providing holistic education over the years. It started as a drop out school and not caters to children from Creche (3 yrs age) to 8th grade.

There are many programs including art, music, judo, etc that are available for the children for holistic development along with education by design strategies that helps them apply their learning to real life read more

(For more information, contact bangalore.sac@ashanet.org)


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The Support A Child (SAC) program at Asha for Education -Bangalore was started in 2009 as a means to involve sponsors directly with selected projects in India to provide for an underprivileged child’s education and or living expenses. Depending on the project’s needs, contributions may also be used to cover healthcare, nutrition and other basic necessities. Sponsors will receive regular updates on the project and about a child in the project. They will also be able to engage in one-on-one correspondence with the child and to be a mentor.

The aim is to support a child’s education with our partner projects. The donor funds are used to support the project that provides education to the child. This is not a scholarship program and we do not transfer funds directly to the child. All funds are received by the project partner and will be used to support the education of the children in the project. For example, the funds may be utilised to cover the teacher salaries, nutrition, activities, building rental, learning materials, school trips etc that will help the children get a quality education. You can become a sponsor for a child in India for as little as $14 a month.

The student will mainly receive a good quality of education, mid-day meals and in some cases, health care (annual medical check ups where available) and nutrition. Every project has slightly different details. Please see the project details. Also as a mentor you can have a positive impact on a student’s future.
The programs ask for each donor to provide an equivalent support for one child so yes. Please note that it is the organization that provides for the child that receives funds and no money is given directly to the child.
We ask for at least 1 year but we would prefer your continued support.
We look for another sponsor. Meanwhile the sponsorship will be continued from general donations.
A student will stay in the sponsorship program ideally till he completes his/her schooling/training in the project. However there may be cases where the student’s family moves out of the area and has no access to the school/institution. There might be unforeseen situations where Asha might decide to discontinue supporting the project or NGO, in which case the student will no longer remain part of Asha’s sponsorship program.
In most cases all the students in a project will be included in the sponsorship program. However, it may differ from project to project. Please see the details of the project or NGO you student belongs to.
Asha has strict guidelines for project selection. Projects are selected only after an Asha volunteer completes a site visit and presents his/her opinion about the project. You can review the guidelines of project selection at our website.
You will receive progress reports on the child you are receiving information about twice a year.
Asha requests that monetary gifts not be sent to a specific student. There are several reasons for this.
– It is often difficult for other families in the community to understand why a student or the family received money. This can cause jealousy and divisiveness in the community.
– Also, some postal systems are unreliable and there is no guarantee that the monetary gifts will reach the project offices. Thank you for understanding.
We appreciate your interest in bringing a student visit the United States. There are several reasons why Asha does not permit visits of sponsored students to the United States:
– The safety and well-being of the student.
– The student’s readjustment to his or her own lifestyle can be difficult.
– Consent of the student’s family.
You are definitely encouraged to do so if you can. Visiting the project will give you a better picture of the facilities and environment provided by the organization for the children. Please note that we avoid a sense of obligation and do not tell children that they have a specific donor. When you visit the school or communicate with any child in the organization you will only be introduced as a friend of the school.
Please contact us before your visit and we can help with organizing your visit with the project in India. Also, please note that we limit the number of visits by a sponsor to two per year.
A number of Asha chapters have Support A Child program. Click here for details.
We share ideas and learn from each other’s experiences but we do not have any joint projects.

CONTACT

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