Team Asha Runners – Kaiwan Billimoria

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WHO IS HE ?

Kaiwan Billimoria

He is one of the very few known Linux Wizards , loves writing long lines of codes  and enjoys running long distances. He trains with Runners High’s and is part of their Elite runners group – JLBR (Jobless Long Boring Runners :-))

Ah. The never-ending question – from folks who do not (yet) run, of course. I don’t have an answer.
Or do I have too many? I just know that it helps in many ways – physically, mentally, spiritually.

How exactly? Just try it !

I find that going out for a run (relatively long ones at times) really does help crystallize thoughts and ideas!

Deep inside, what that long difficult training run brings you: true happiness. Happiness is not to be confused with comfort; quite the opposite in fact. We’re truly happy when we’re pushing ourselves to achieve something difficult. Growth and comfort do not go together.

I enjoy running (in a slow and boring-to-all-others fashion)… Running, for me, is one path. As we all know, there are many, many paths to self-realization, enlightenment, and so on; the invariant being  that all are arduous. Running is a way in which many of us like minded people try and push ourselves forward.

Why Asha ?

ASHA is a wonderful community of people who are doing their bit to change the world. By giving the most important ingredient to us humans – HOPE. This is achieved by educating children belonging to our imbalanced society’s weaker sections. Kudos to the full and part-time dedicated ASHA volunteers!

To add some “real” down-to-earth meaning to my running efforts, I’d like to do my best to raise funds for ASHA, which of course, uses these funds to educate underprivileged children, giving them – and us! – Hope.

I know that you would like to help out; one small way is to contribute whatever you can.

More On Asha

Asha funds education for underprivileged children in India. Based in the U.S. with chapters in India (under the name Asha Trust), it is rated a “full confidence” 4 on 4 stars by an independent organization that reviews such NGOs, called Charity Navigator. Asha has been around since 1991 and is known for its deep involvement with grass roots partners and thinking holistically about education within the community context that the children belong to.

Asha is also known for being excellent stewards of money, with long term relationships with each of the schools / projects that they deal with. They insist on regular reviews (12-18 months interval) on how the project has implemented its programs and how it has spent the budgeted funds. Volunteers also play an advisory role as “Project stewards” (the person assigned to being the point of contact for each school), offering external perspective and oversight.

Asha is apolitical and secular. It is transparent in its dealings (public meeting minutes & finances), meticulous in its documentation (every project has its own website with historical details of every budget proposal, Site Visit report, QnA session etc), and an unusual non-hierarchical organization that has grown with the digital world to make decisions democratically over technology.

Nearly 100% of your contribution goes directly to the projects and the children. The organization is unusual in its low overheads (< 5% for both Admin + Fundraising costs = exemplary in its space).