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About Work an Hour

Each year, people from around the world come together in a demonstration of great human spirit, to help educate underprivileged children in India. Work An Hour, or WAH, as it is popularly known, is a summer-long, global, online fundraising campaign based on a simple concept:

" Participants are asked to symbolically Work an Hour towards the cause of children's education by donating an hour's worth or more of their salary."

Timeline

This year, the event begins on July 15 and concludes on September 15 spanning through India's Independence Day on August 15 and Teachers' Day on September 5.

How does it work?

Fifteen projects across Asha have been showcased in this year's WAH. Donors will have the ability to give to a project of their choice.

Asha's project partners selected for WAH support, typically require larger sums of money, more than what a single Asha chapter can raise, in order to facilitate fixed expenditure on items such as infrastructure, construction and other one-time costs and recurring expenses. WAH aims to help such projects by this worldwide campaign to raise funds across all projects.

All Asha projects are closely monitored by Asha project coordinators to ensure that the funds are being properly utilized and the proposed benefits are actually being realized by the children in the project.

History

The first WAH campaign started in 1998, raised over $30,000 from close to 700 donors. Last year, WAH raised over $100,000 with a donor base of over 1,000 participants.

Projects chosen in the past included a wide range of education initiatives, such as educating slum children, supporting schools for the disabled and non-formal education centers, educating children of sexworkers, mitigating child labor etc, empowering rural and tribal communities. This year's campaign addresses quality of education.

Read more about previous WAH's here.

Theme - Quality of Education

Prepare. Educate. Empower

In 2009, WAH's twelfth year of fundraising online, Asha for Education is highlighting projects in India involved in providing Quality Education to their students.

In almost all measures of development, India has come a long way, especially since the start of this century. But as in the case of our economy, the gains have not been uniform. In primary education, India has made great strides as far as the provision of access and coverage is concerned, by achieving an enrollment ratio of 95 per cent, but in terms of education quality, it only ranks sixth among the seven emerging economies of the world.

The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 and the revised NPE, 1992, reiterated the urgency required in addressing the quality concerns in schools education. We will need to reform teacher training; improve school facilities and infrastructure; encourage and support teachers&rsquo motivation; and change teaching styles to make them more attractive to the students. Asha for Education recognizes Quality can not improve unaided and that it must work with community-based NGOs that work to serve the educational needs of India&rsquo s children.



The movie above by National Institue of Design, Ahmedabad depicts the state of primary education in India. Let's help the children of India have a brighter future by improving the quality of education in India. Support Work an hour.

Those of us volunteering for Asha for Education believe that quality education for everyone, irrespective of their social status, is essential for creating equal opportunities for all. Our 2009 projects, are based in different parts of the country, and focus on innovative ways of strengthening the school systems through better infrastructure, teaching methods, adequate supplies of teaching material and well trained teachers.

Through each of these 15 projects, WAH presents you a unique opportunity, where your own income from an hour of work can help alleviate the problems faced by children in marginalized communities. By supporting WAH 2009 along with Asha for Education, you can help 'Prepare' the students for a competitive world by 'Educating' them in a quality environment and 'Empowering' the marginalized communities. WAH 2009 features the projects found in projects

Work an Hour 2009 - Prepare. Educate. Empower.
Previous WAHs: Previous WAH Campaigns