Asia Initiatives

Up to date news at Asia Initiatives.

Updated December 19, 2009

Dear Friends of Asia Initiatives,

1. It is with great pleasure that we announce that Susan Considine has taken over as the President of the Board of Directors of AI-Tokyo from Geeta Mehta who has relocated to New York to head the AI-USA board. The Tokyo chapters continues to be very active with the leadership of the Board Members:

Ambassador Aftab Seth (Honorary Chairman)
Susan Considine (President)
Tomoko Takeba (Treasurer)
Shashank Bansal
Jagmohan Chandrani
Nandini Gupta
Geeta Mehta
Sanjeev Sinha
Afifah Yamasaki

2. Thank you very much to all attendees for helping make our 10th Anniversary Gala fundraiser held on November 13 in Tokyo such a success. The theme of the celebration was the Festival of Lights, to honor the many lamps of hope you have helped light-up for the hard working micro entrepreneurs in South Asia. A delicious Indian dinner, entertainment and a live auction were enjoyed by over 100 attendees. We raised over four million yen for setting up new micro credit banks and for supporting capacity building projects for Self Help Groups in partnership with MSSRF. Our heartfelt gratitude to Shinsei Bank, our MC Rahul Gupta, our auctioneer Max Olson, and the Event co-chairs Susan Considine and Kaoru Sueda.

3. Doctor M.S. Swaminathan, the inspiration for our Foundation, appeared on the MacNeil Lehrer News Hour last week in connection with the green revolution and his work with Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug. The transcript and video is at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec09/indiaagricult_09-1...

4. Over 110 people attended the launch of Asia Initiatives USA chapter in New York on April 18th, hosted by the Director General of India. Photographs of the event are at asiainitiatives.org. We are in the process of registering AI as a 501-C3 organization to enable US Tax payers make tax deductible donations. If you have friends in USA you think would be interested in our work, please let us know.

5. We want to thank you for your support in the financial year 2008-9, which ended on March 31. With your help we accomplished the following:

Projects with MSSRF (www.mssrf.org):

- 2,000,000 yen sent for an up scaling of Community Learning Centre at Reddiarchatram, Dindigul to 10 more village hamlets. These centers use innovative tools for increasing literacy and computer skills in villages.
- 700,000 yen sent for Micro Credit Banks Federation building at Kulumai, Tamil Nadu.
- 60,000 Rupees provided as Micro-enterprise grant to self-help groups (SHGs) to produce an innovative natural pesticide that exemplifies the pro-environment, pro-women and pro-poor approach of MSSRF.
- 20,000 US$ sent for training for improved livelihood of the coastal artisan fishermen in Poompuhar.
- 150,000 yen sent for post-harvest processing of millets and paddy by the tribal women SHGs in Kolli hills.
- 7 new micro credit banks launched.
- All micro credit banks donated so far are now in action, and Summer reporting for 2009 to all donors was completed. Please let us know if you did not receive your report, as a few email addresses seem to have been changed.

Projects with other organizations working with the MSSRF philosophy of "Pro-poor, pro environment, pro-women":

- 300,000 yen provided to Philippine Christian Foundation for education of children of rag-picker families in Manila. Katie Baker, our former co-chair is working with them now. (Education Initiative)
- 750,000 yen grant to PUKAR/URBZ (www.urbz.org) to establish Dharavi Community Cell, which is now working to empower the community along the lines of MSSRF Village Knowledge Centre (Digital Bridge Initiative)
- Funds provided for a PC projector to NESCONN in Nepal (Education Initiative)
- Funded operation for one year of one Mobile Crèche to (www.mobilecreches.org) childcare centre for migrant laborers in Delhi (Education Initiative)
- 2,000,000 yen provided to Arpana Trust in Delhi (www.arpana.org) for micro credit loans to SHGs for building their own micro housing in Molarbandh (Micro Credit Initiative)
- Desks and benches provided via Armene Modi/ Ashta no Kai in a village school in Khandale near Pune. Photographs attached. (Education Initiative)
- 150,000 yen provided to Komazawa University Student Fund (under the guidance of Prof. Yuko Nishimura) for training of village people in Kovalam to build eco-san toilets (Education Initiative)

Further details for all projects are on our website www.asiainitiatives.org. Most projects have been personally visited by board members. Krishen and Geeta will visit more projects in Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai from October 20-November 3. We welcome you to join us, or visit these projects as and when your schedule allows you to do so. Mayuri Straub, a former board member runs periodic tours to these and other sites, and can be contacted at odedrastraub@yahoo.de

All this would not have been possible without your support. We look forward to your continued partnership this year, and hope you will join us on November 13 at the Festival of Colors.

MORE NEWS AND PHOTOS:

- Photo Gallery is now online HERE! New galleries are being added all the time.

- Over 120 people attended the launch of Asia Initiatives in New York kindly hosted by the Consulate General of India on April 18. Photos can be found here.

- We are honored that TAC Women's Group chose AI as one of the 5 NPO beneficiaries of their 60th Anniversary Gala on April 24 2009.

- We are thankful to Fujimamas and Lauren Shannon for raising funds for AI at the "Sita Sings the Blues" Film Screening and Party held on 4/1/09.

- A BIG thank you to all who made the Festival of Lights held on October 8 at the home of the Indian Ambassador such a success. Photos may be seen at Keyshots.org.

- The Asia Initiatives photo gallery is now ONLINE! You can view photos from events and onsite projects in India in the gallery.

- Look out for the US version of the website soon to be up online!