Asha for Education

Project WHY was conceived to answer a series of questions: Why do children from underprivileged backgrounds perform poorly? What could be done to enhance their performance? What skills should be taught to them to better their employment options? How could this be achieved in a replicable community driven model?

<B>Goals</B>
- provide after school educational support to children from disadvantaged sections of society.
- provide pre-school support (care for entire day) for children under age 5 from these communities.
- provide exposure to various vocational skills to secondary school children and provide training opportunities in areas of interest for secondary school children.
- point to overall healthcare support options and provide primary health & hygeine awareness to these children to prevent ailments.

Project WHY started with 40 children and spoken English classes in 1998. Today, it reaches out to over 600 children and runs an early education program, primary and secondary after school support, a day care and life skills program for 20 children with disabilities as well as a computer center in 8 different locations. The kids from Project WHY have 100% pass rate through school and many kids have gone into colleges. Kids guided in other vocational skills by Project WHY coordinators now earn sufficient to move their families out of slums. The organization also has contained drop out rates completely to 0% dropout from Project WHY kids.

Project WHY was started by Anouradha Bakshi, who is the daughter of an Indian Ambassador and has spent her childhood outside India - she has returned to India to serve the people, infused years of her time along with significant portion of her inheritance into sustaining the project. Her daughter, Shamika Bakshi, has dedicated herself to serving at Project Why full time. Project WHY now employs 30+ people from the community as teachers and employs transportation services from people in the community, spending almost all the funds in the community.

Project WHY has expansion plans that include adding more classrooms, providing expanded healthcare as well as providing vocational training. Project WHY also plans to provide exposure and training for life skills to special needs kids (physically and mentally challenged) to enable them to sustain themselves.

Project WHY is a community upliftment project undertaken by Sri Ram Goburdhun Charitable Trust, an 80(g) exempt organization, registered in India. The charitable trust also has FCRA clearance to accept foreign currency donations. Project WHY is supported in part by Enfances Indiennes, a charity registered in France. Project WHY is also recognized by UNESCO.