DOCSLIB.ORG

Akshara Akshara

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Akshara Akshara akshara akshara Sankalp Resolve for a progressive India Volume 5, March 2013 Inside this issue: Foreword 2 Meaning of Sankalp 3 About Sankalp 4 Projects in considera- 5 tion for 2013 Recent Projects 6 Sankalp - making a 8 difference Secondary Story Headline Sankalp - a personal 10 experience This story can fit 75-125 words. Examples of possible headlines Visionary - one man’s 12 include Product Wins Industry Your headline is an important Award, New Product Can Save dream part of the newsletter and You Time!, Membership Drive should be considered carefully. Exceeds Goals, and New Office Fundraising Activities 14 In a few words, it should accu- Opens Near You. rately represent the contents of the story and draw readers into Getting Involved 15 the story. Develop the headline before you write the story. This way, the headline will help you Acknowledgements 16 keep the story focused. Page 2 akshara FOREWORD Greetings! It gives me great pleasure to be associated with Sankalp and write this foreword for Akshara. In my view, Sankalp not only has the noble mission of helping communities in India, but also provides a platform for our students to learn and practice entrepreneurship. In particular, projects funded by Sankalp includes primary education, women empowerment, and natural disaster relief. For the past 16 years, Sankalp has been marching successfully in achieving its mission through the support of Iowa State University, dedicated student volunteers, Ames community, ISU alums and well-wishers, and of course the NGOs who execute the projects. Revival of this newsletter is a positive step for Sankalp in its endeavor. It will help in keeping touch with Sankalp patrons and keeping them abreast about its ongoing efforts. It will also help in increasing awareness about Sankalp's efforts to the local community. Over the years, Sankalp has tried different methods for fundraising, such as football volunteering, coin collection etc. One of the efforts started in 2007 was Daawat, which has been highly successful since its inception. A lot of members from the community including students, faculty, and well-wishers look forward to attending the event to learn about the new projects and help out Sankalp in some ways, and to watch the cultural performances. The members put in lot of effort and preparation to make this event a memorable one. In the context of India, although steady progress has been made over the decades in literacy, poverty eradication, and women empowerment, there are still major challenges in spreading the opportunities and benefits to a vast population living below poverty line, esp. in rural India. Therefore, every small step taken to address these issues is worth it and that's what Sankalp's core mission is. I take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone for your continued support, advice, and good- will, which make Sankalp sustainable and growing! I hope you enjoy reading Akshara and your suggestions and feedback are most welcome. Dr. Manimaran Govindarasu Sankalp’s Faculty Advisor, Professor & Associate Chair, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University. akshara Page 3 Meaning of Sankalp In Sanskrit, ‘san’ means to come together and ‘kalpa’ can be traced to originate from ‘kalpana’ or thought. Sankalp, thus means the merging of (many) thoughts. It signifies the visualization of the positive outcome of an experience well before we even reach that point. To have a sankalpa is to harness the energies of the subconscious, conscious and the physical levels of the body and direct them to flow through us, thus facilitating the resolve to reality. According to Richard Miller, PhD, a clinical psychologist and teacher in the Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir nondual traditions, “a sankalpa arrives with everything needed to fully realize it. This includes iccha (tremendous will and energy), kriya (action) and jnana (the wisdom of how to de- liver that action)”. Each one of us has, consciously or otherwise make a ‘resolve’ to complete a designated task or goal almost everyday. The satisfaction and joy on experiencing this is unparalleled to any other, whether it came from signing documents for a major company takeover, or writing letters to loved ones that we meant to, for quite some time. On a more familiar note, for those of us that regularly practice yoga or meditation, ‘Sankalpa’ may be a integral part of the routine. Repeating to oneself, the innermost deep desires that we aspire to be, is a very powerful technique of transforming the core of our inner selves. Joining the Cyclone family at ISU in Fall 2011, after having crossed a number of hurdles and challenges (like all of my fellow batch mates) to realize this ‘goal’ took a lot of grit, and dedica- tion. But the more heart rending realization - of the many fellow Indians are still waiting to ‘start’ a life, to have access to what ‘basic amenities’ as we term them here, to have a school to go to, to have a good meal from one’s own earnings- came after reaching here, and taking a good long look back at the journey so far. Sankalp at ISU - has many answers to putting some proactiveness to these thoughts. It makes perfect sense to have everything- the name, the goals and the spirit of the organization- attrib- uted to one complete word - ‘SANKALP’. Founded with the desire to make a difference, proactive efforts towards making the change, and the coming together of ideas towards the proactive effort. I am very proud to be part of Sankalp, of a bunch of live-wires with extraordinary ideas, yet grounded with the knowledge of Indian culture, and working towards the ‘resolve to make a difference’. - By Gauri Ramasubramanian, Student, ISU Page 4 akshara SANKALP – an initiative Sankalp is a non-profit volunteer organization formed by highly motivated students of Iowa State University to help improve the socio -economic conditions of the poorer sections of the society in India. Started in 1995 at Iowa State University, as India Literacy Fo- cus Group, the organization was dedicated to the cause of improving the levels of literacy in India. Sankalp, which means resolve or deter- Education is mination, signified the intention of this organization to contribute in the manifesta- some measure to the development in India. tion of the perfection al- Since its inception, the organization has broadened its focus ready in man. from literacy to include other aspects of development and has contin- - Swami ued its efforts in funding deserving grass-root development projects. Vivekananda Currently, Sankalp has a core group of 8-9 students, and a vol- unteer base of numerous enthusiastic students. In additional, local professionals and alumni contribute to the cause of Sankalp. Sankalp hopes to continue its fine tradition of thoughtful project selection and evaluation, and raise the money needed for these pro- jects with its hard work in the local community. Little Star School Project Year: March 2003 Location : Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India Contribution:$2500 Goals Education is the most pow- erful weapon Create awareness in local and non-local communities about the which you can problems of illiteracy and other related issues in India use to change To sponsor and nurture projects in India on a sustainable basis the world. Create awareness about work done by various organizations in -Nelson India and USA and effectively network and collaborate with such Mandela organizations akshara Page 5 Projects in consideration for 2013 Organization Amount* Project Synopsis Target Area Aarambh $ 1720.00 To provide quality education to 150 chil- Slum areas in Navi dren in age group of three to five years Mumbai and 100 out of school children in age group of six to twelve years. Bhumi $ 1890.00 To help improvement of academic per- Chennai, Bangalore, formance of 1500 children at orphan- Pune, Mumbai and ages, slum and village community cen- Delhi. ters based in various cities and going to CSS $ 5660.00 To completely sponsor 10 girls for one Hyderabad & Chennai academic year which includes personal Deep $ 3300.00 To provide additional livelihood opportu- Solan, Himachal nities for elderly people by setting up a Pradesh Pickle and Tomato Sauce making plant that utilizes locally available raw mate- rial. Nirmaan $ 1200.00 To provide academic/carrier guidance Andhra Pradesh to students from 26000 villages and 1700 towns by setting up a library for providing tele- helpline services and conducting career counseling work- shops. Shantidaara $ 2070.00 To facilitate education of 40 children, Vishakhapatnam coming from areas with no access to school by providing safe and adequate living accommodation. Snehadeep $ 5500.00 To enable 55 visually challenged youth Bangalore from low-income families to be eco- nomically sound and independent by providing vocational education and ac- * Amounts mentioned above are based on the currency conversion rate 1 USD = 53 INR Page 6 akshara Recent Projects Project : VIRD (Voluntary Institute for Rural Development ) Project Goals: To empower women from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, by actively involving them in agricultural activities and animal husbandry, hence providing them with means for future income. Contribution: $9200 Year of funding: 2012 - 2014 Project : Mahek (Avbodh IQG Rural Empow- erment Program ) Project Goals: To train women in making incense so that they have a monthly income of Rupees 2500 -3500(roughly $50-$70). To rent a place for this purpose and buy ma- chines required for making incense. Contribution: $8100 Year of funding: 2012 - 2014 Project : Wadi (Haritika) Project Goals: To ensure sustainable source of income for tribal families though the concept of Wadi (orchard plantation) To split a plot of land equally among tribal families to grow fruit plants. Contribution: $5000 Year of funding: 2012 - 2014 akshara Page 7 Recent Projects Project : Ruipathar Electrification (Maitri) Project Goals: Harness the extra capacity of the solar panels already installed in the village for powering wa- ter pumps by providing electric lights to each family as well as street lights in the village.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Toxic Lunch in Bhopal and Chemical Publics
    Article Science, Technology, & Human Values 2016, Vol. 41(5) 849-875 ª The Author(s) 2016 Toxic Lunch in Bhopal Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0162243916645196 and Chemical Publics sthv.sagepub.com Rahul Mukherjee1 Abstract On November 28, 2009, as part of events marking the twenty-fifth anni- versary of the disaster at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, gas survivors protested the contents of the report prepared by government scientists that mocked their complaints about contamination. The survivors shifted from the scientific document to a mediated lunch invitation performance, purporting to serve the same chemicals as food that the report had categorized as having no toxic effects. I argue that the lunch spread, consisting of soil and water from the pesticide plant, explicitly front-staged and highlighted the survivor’s forced intimate relationship with such chemicals, in order to reshape public perception of risks from toxins. Chemical matter like sevin tar and naphthol tar bound politicians, scien- tists, corporations, affected communities, and activists together, as these stakeholders debated the potential effects of toxic substances. This gave rise to an issue-based ‘‘chemical public.’’ Borrowing from such theoretical concepts as ‘‘ontologically heterogeneous publics’’ and ‘‘agential realism,’’ I track the existing and emerging publics related to the disaster and the campaigns led by the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal advocacy group. 1University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2019-20 Context
    ANNUAL REPORT 2019-20 CONTEXT 02 About United Way Chennai 03 Meet Our Board of Directors 05 Our Chairman says 06 Our CEO says 07 Impact at a Glance 09 CSR Projects - Education 17 - Environment 19 - Livelihood 23 - Health & Sanitation 25 -Disaster Response 27 - Intergrated Village 29 Volunteering - Day of Action 2019 - Paint-A-Thon - Craft-A-Thought - Paper Bag Making ABOUT UNITED WAY CHENNAI - Ford Global Caring Month United Way Chennai fi ghts for the health, education, and fi nancial stability of every person 33 Fundraising Events in every community. We are part of the United Way Network, present in 40+ countries and territories across the world. In India, United Way has a widespread presence in every major state 37 Special Initiatives and a well-established network of grassroots NGOs to address the most persisting problems in that region. 39 Covid-19 Founded in 2010, UWC envisions an inclusive world where there are opportunities for everyone, 41 Financials there is no poverty; everyone has access to quality health care and education. We identify issues that plague our community and bring together all the key stakeholders including the 43 NGO & Corporate Partners Government, corporates, technical experts, and NGOs to provide lasting solutions to the problem. These multi-faceted, value-driven 360-degree partnerships are the bedrock to our successful, systematic, and sustainable social interventions. MR. M A Alagappan, MR. Lakshmi Narayanan, MR. D. Chandrasekar, MR. Mahalingam Seturaman, Chairman, UWC Founder, UWC Founder-President of Madras Ex-CFO TCS Dyslexia Association The composition of our board is a refl ection of our ‘LIVE UNITED’ philosophy comprising of leaders from diverse backgrounds and whose expertise is instrumental in driving lasting impact in the communities.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report
    U&I IMPACT 2018-19 REPORT PARTNERS IN CHANGE OUR STORY STARTS ON A SUNDAY It all began when a couple of friends decided to It was this eagerness to learn, brought about by spend their Sundays doing something off the the simple exchange between mentor and child, beaten track. Instead of a self-indulgent week- that sparked the idea of what is now called, U&I. end, they chose to start helping out at a Govern- This report is a testament to the enduring power ment-run Home for special-needs children. Sun- of kindness and connection. days soon became about engaging with the children at the Home and helping clean the compound. What started out as just a few, turned into a following. With more than 50 volunteers helping every week, the Home was revamped and brought to life. What began as a weekend plan, turned into We are U&I, a volunteer an everyday undertaking. powered NGO built on the foundation that The same two friends began discussing what change happens when more they could do to help underprivileged kids in their neighbourhood. What would be of we work together. value? Computers seemed to be the answer. One of the friends ran his own HR firm - his office space could be used to start computer classes. The evenings would see small groups of kids from nearby slums, crowded around large systems, learning and absorbing all that they could. 1 MISSION Bring education and healthcare to disadvantaged communities across India VISION Building Communities of Change PROGRAMS U&I TEACH U&I CARE 2 1934 1670 49 CHILDREN VOLUNTEERS LEARNING CENTERS 4 HOMES 20 CITIES STRONG 3 THE QUESTION THAT REQUIRES ACTION, NOT AN ANSWER When we first volunteered at the State-run Boys’ But today, let’s focus on the question, Home for special-needs children back in 2011, our “Why not?” intention was very simple: the kids needed help and we had the ability to pitch in.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 1998- 99
    PRAVAH ANNUAL REPORT 1998- 99 Resonating to the rhythms of social change - Pravah students lead a march for peace turn the tide turn the tide At Pravah .....walking the thin line between fun and work between social responsibility and sacrifice between creativity and indiscipline between Hindi and English between left and right between black and white from me to we Come walk with us and turn the tide 2 turn the tide Dear Friend, This has been an exciting year for Pravah. The school program VIDYA was introduced into many new schools - in part because of our demonstrated success over the last few years and in part due to our decision to run the program free of cost in poorly resourced schools. The modification in the delivery of the 'From Me to We' program from a curriculum running weekly through the year to a concentrated 4-6 full day workshops spread across the year, also resulted in an enhancement of the quality of intervention because of the intensive nature of the interaction that this format allowed, between student and facilitators. One of the high points of the VIDYA program was a FUN camp organised for XI class student of Shriram School. They were taken to Tilonia in Rajasthan and the different culture and lifestyles they were exposed to appeared to have a profound impact on their thinking. This reinforced our mission to work with young people who are the future decision-makers of our country, so that we can enable them to take socially responsible decisions. The SMILE program has also grown significantly.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2016-17 Our Mission We Grant the Wishes of Children with Life Threatening Medical Conditions to Enrich the Human Experience with Hope Strength and Joy
    Share the Power of a Wish® Annual Report 2016-17 Our Mission We Grant The Wishes of Children With Life Threatening Medical Conditions To Enrich The Human Experience With Hope Strength and Joy Our Vision We Are Dedicated To Making Every Eligible Child’s Wish Come True. Our Mission We Grant The Wishes of Children With Life Threatening Medical Conditions To Enrich The Human Experience With Hope Strength and Joy Our Vision We Are Dedicated To Making Every Eligible Child’s Wish Come True. ANNUAL REPORT 2016 - 17 CONTENT About Make-A-Wish Foundation® of India 5 From the Managing Trustee’s Desk 7 From the CEO’s Desk 7 Overview & Operations 14 Ahmedabad, Gujarat Bengaluru, Karnataka Chennai, Tamil Nadu Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu Delhi Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Jaipur, Rajasthan Kolkata, West Bengal Mumbai, Maharashtra Pune, Maharashtra Governance 18 Auditors Report 24 Way Forward 37 ANNUAL REPORT 2016 - 17 ABOUT MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION® OF INDIA Make-A-Wish Foundation® of India is a nonprofit organization affiliated to Make A Wish Foundation® International, a prestigious foundation which has 37 other affiliates worldwide serving about 49 countries. The Foundation is dedicated to granting the most cherished wish of children between the ages of 3 and 18 years, living with life-threatening illnesses, irrespective of their socio economic status, caste, race or religion. It is a Registered Trust under Bombay Public Trust Act 1950. Each affiliate works within the framework of stringent international policies and guidelines. Make-A-Wish is the most preferred and highly rated charity with FOUR STAR rating by International Charity Navigator for 9 years in a row and thus we are a global brand and a pioneer in this effort.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2019 SMILE Was Launched in Partnership with Manovikas, New Delhi
    2000 20YEARS JOURNEY2019 ANNUAL REPORT 2020 HOH 20 YEARS JOURNEY + 2019 ANNUAL REPORT Dear Patrons In these unprecedented times that we are all going through, there is a silver lining. It’s Home of Hope’s 20th year in service and the 20 year journey has indeed been 20:20 for us, the children and the communities that we have served. We have been able to make this life changing impact together with your trust, faith and donations. At Home of Hope, we are scrupulous in measuring our performance and impact so that we can learn what’s working, and where we are most effective. In 20 years, we have witnessed how partnering with our projects on pilot programs can lead to implementation on a vastly wider scale, thereby impacting a far greater number of children. Our partner projects have developed programs that have enabled passing of laws to provide mandatory Mental health care and developed board certified MBA curriculums for physically and mentally handicapped youth along with several specialized courses in vocational and computer skill training enabling them to get jobs and be self-sufficient. We are growing and expanding our efforts in improving the lives of the most marginalized. HOH provides funding to rescue, rehabilitate and provide vocational training for Job skills to victims of human trafficking . HOH has gone environmentally green. We are instrumental in planting over 15000 trees and water harvesting. During COVID we campaigned to raise funds to provide meals and medical help to migrant workers and their families. We mobilized school education by supplying smart phones and laptops to students in the slums.
    [Show full text]
  • Study of the Attitude and Perception of the Community Towards Solid Waste
    STUDY OF THE ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTION OF COMMUNITY TOWARDS SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT – A CASE STUDY OF THIRUVANANTHAPURAM CITY – PHASE II. Submitted to KERALA RESEARCH PROGRAMME ON LOCAL LEVEL DEVELOPMENT By CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT December 2003 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The present project “ Study of the Attitude and Perception of Community towards Solid Waste Management- A case study of Thiruvananthapuram City- Phase II” was sponsored by the Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. We take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. K. Narayanan Nair, Programme Co-ordinator, KRPLLD and the members of the Steering Committee and Programme Secretariat for giving us an opportunity to carryout this study. Also we thank them for the suggestions and advice during the various stages of the present project. A number of experts and distinguished personalities had been associated with this project at various stages including the first phase of the programme. We place here our sincere gratitude to them all. Also we thank the Presidents, Secretaries and members of the various Residence Associations of Thiruvananthapuram City. The work could not have been successful without the active co-operation and sincerity shown by the residents of Bhagat Singh Residence Association of Pettah ward and Moolavilakom Residence Association of Kannamoola ward. We take this opportunity to thank the people especially women members who actively participat ed in discussions and co-operated with the door-to-door collection of household waste, who are still involved in the programme. Finally we thank our colleagues at the Centre for Environment and Development who have whole- heartedly co-operated and extended all kinds of help for the successful completion of the work.
    [Show full text]
  • Inter-School
    0 Editorial Dear Reader Greetings of the Day! Through this issue we want to take the opportunity to congratulate all those who have won awards since the last edition We don’t learn from experience……………. of the newsletter. Awards do remind us of our objectives, We learn from reflecting upon experience……… constant hard work and perseverance but the true meaning of John Dewey learning is to attain perfection in whatever we do. It is rightly said that if we take care of small things, big things will take We are pleased to bring to you our official newsletter care of themselves. ‘Reflections’ issue from April, 2017 to September, 2017. It We thank all those who have contributed to make this newsletter captures the spirit of all the special occasions and memorable see the light of the day. moments of collaborative learning in the school through various Enjoy each moment of your engagement with all these activities scholastic and co scholastic activities. All the events and as there is no rewind in life, only the flashbacks…… and of programmes are directed towards providing our children an ideal course Reflections! platform to experience, experiment, explore and enhance their Happy Reading latent abilities. Editorial Team 1 In Conversation with the Principal Ms. Rashmi Malik What initially inspired you to pursue a dream world with aware and enlightened future citizens. Every moment career in education? in school we learn as each moment is never same. Huge responsibility as I started my career in the IT industry as a we grow together with the team and students.
    [Show full text]
  • Innovating in Education: NGO Interventions in New Delhi Government Schools
    Innovating in Education: NGO Interventions in New Delhi Government Schools The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:40049977 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Innovating in Education: NGO Interventions in New Delhi Government Schools A dissertation presented by Anshul Kumar to The Department of Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Sociology Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts January 2018 © 2018 Anshul Kumar All rights reserved Dissertation Advisor: Professor Christopher Winship Anshul Kumar Innovating in Education: NGO Interventions in New Delhi Government Schools This dissertation examines three education non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in New Delhi that attempt to innovate within the Indian government school system. The author uses immersive ethnography to understand how school-level phenomena can enable or constrain student learning. First, the author argues that “tightly managed,” highly supervised teachers can engage and plan more with the schools in which they work, whereas “loosely managed,” unsupervised teachers act autonomously and engage less. Rigid curriculum causes teachers to teach faster than students can learn. Flexible curriculum allows teachers to adjust to student learning speeds. Second, the author finds that NGO and mainstream government teachers have distinct “cultures of learning.” Government teachers sort students into two categories: learners and non-learners, effectively blacklisting the latter and failing to cater to their needs.
    [Show full text]
  • City of Temples Discusses Signaling Templates in Cancer Cells
    ANTICANCER RESEARCH 30: 2477-2480 (2010) Meeting Report City of Temples Discusses Signaling Templates in Cancer Cells. Third International Symposium on Translational Cancer Research: Cell Signaling & Cancer Therapy Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, December 18th through 21st, 2009 VARSHA GANDHI1, KAPIL MEHTA1, SEN PATHAK2, BALACHANDRAN RAVINDRAN3, SANDIP MISHRA3 and BHARAT B. AGGARWAL1 1Department of Experimental Therapeutics and 2Department of Genetics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, U.S.A.; 3Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India Abstract. The third International Translational Cancer been underscoring the importance of translational research Research symposium on “Cell Signaling and Cancer” was to diagnose, prevent, treat, and perhaps even to cure cancer. recently (from Dec. 18th through Dec. 21st, 2009) convened While the concept of translating research from the bench to in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, which lies along the eastern shores the bedside has become a norm in developed countries such of India, just south of Bengal. Overall, the meeting provided as the United States, education and training are required to a platform for scientists from different nations to discuss perpetuate this notion in developing countries, such as India. emerging ideas that focused on cell signaling in cancer. This Specifically for cancer, research-driven patient care is the third in a row symposium tried to bridge the gap not only only way to make a difference. With this in mind, in 2005 between basic research and clinical trials, but also between four American scientists of Indian origin from the University developed nations and developing countries. With the of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center decided to form an continuing success of these meetings, the fourth International International Society of Translational Cancer Research with Translational Cancer Research Meeting is slated to be in a primary goal of biannually organizing a symposium in December 2011.
    [Show full text]
  • India: the Urban Transition - a Case Study of Development'
    H-Asia Chopra on Valeur, 'India: The Urban Transition - A Case Study of Development' Review published on Wednesday, December 2, 2015 Henrik Valeur. India: The Urban Transition - A Case Study of Development. Copenhagen: Arkitektur B, 2014. Illustrations, graphs. 344 pp. $44.50 (paper), ISBN 978-87-92700-09-4. Reviewed by Preeti Chopra (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Published on H-Asia (December, 2015) Commissioned by Sumit Guha Development Urbanism, International Expertise, and Solutions to the Crises of India’s Urban Transition In an age when star architects dominate our attention, the Danish architect-urbanist Henrik Valeur’s book on India’s urban transition is an important reminder to us of a longstanding parallel history of architecture and urbanism, one where architects tackle social problems through practical engagement with the built environment. Some of these architect-urbanists, such as the eminent Indian architect Charles Correa (1930-2015), are also writers who have published essays and books about architecture and the city. Through their writing and their buildings, these architects have shown how one can positively transform the social conditions in which people live. In the book India: The Urban Transition – A Case Study of Development Urbanism, Valeur makes his own debut as a writer of India’s cities, a country that he first visited as a youth and later influenced his decision to train as an architect. Although not intended as a scholarly book, India is well grounded in data, and supported with relevant statistics, footnotes, references, and graphs that prove the great challenges that India is facing in terms of poverty, pollution, housing, water shortage, and so on.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2007-08 Cover: Aarti Kumari, 7 Years Old, Explores Math Through Colorful Learning Tools
    (change) american india foundation - annual report 2007-08 Cover: Aarti Kumari, 7 years old, explores math through colorful learning tools. Nidan, Patna, Bihar. Bhagyaluxmi availed a loan to enhance her shop through a revolving fund for HIV positive women. LEPRA Society, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Back Cover: A community health worker (left) visits a new mother (right) and her son after her first in-hospital delivery. MAMTA, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The desire for change lies within everyone. AIF catalyzes this desire into innovation, entrepreneurship and action. Transforming the desire for a better life into reality. By providing knowledge. Funding. Networking. Support. AIF is the power to make a difference. AIF is change raised to a higher level. Ratan (center) and friends attend school in their home village while their parents migrate to work in salt pans. Cohesion Foundation Trust, Kutch, Gujarat. table of contents 2 Mission & Vision 5 From our Honorary Chair 6 From our Board 8 From our CEO 10 Snapshot of AIF 11 AIF Presence in India 12 Inclusion 16 Partnership 20 Advocacy 24 Scale 28 Innovation 32 Capacity 36 Leadership 40 Philanthropy 42 AIF Partners 46 Financials 50 AIF People 56 Donors Uniformed cycle rickshaw drivers get ready for work. Sammaan Foundation, Patna, Bihar. All Photographs © Harish Tyagi unless otherwise noted Azad Oommen, Nidhi Raj Kapoor, Nicole Patel and Chand Nirankari wrote, edited and designed this Annual Report mission The American India Foundation (AIF) is dedicated to catalyzing social and economic change in India. vision To contribute to building an India where all people can gain access to education, health care, and live- lihood opportunities, and where all Indians can re- alize their full potential.
    [Show full text]