ASHA SANDESH * The quarterly newsletter of Asha-Atlanta EMPOWERING THROUGH EDUCATION

1. ASHA SANDESH* The quarterly newsletter of Asha-Atlanta EMPOWERING THROUGH EDUCATION http://www.ashanet.org/atlantaVol. 2, No. 3, July-Sept 2004 Asha-Atlanta welcomes our new member Suneet, and wishes good luck to our outgoing volunteer Monica Gupta! If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. - Chinese Proverb. Work an Hour Welcome to Work An Hour 2004, the seventh edition of Asha's largest worldwide event! Each year volunteers from around the world come together in a show of great human spirit, to help educate underprivileged children in India. Work An Hour, or WAH, as it is popularly known, is a simple concept. We ask you to symbolically contribute one hour of your time towards the cause of children's education by donating an hour's worth of your salary or more. The event symbolically begins on July 4, the American Independence Day, reaches an apex on August 15, the Indian Independence Day, and finally culminates on September 5, which is celebrated as Teachers' Day in India. Asha's project partners chosen for WAH support, typically require larger sums of money than what a single Asha chapter can support, in order to facilitate fixed expenditure on items such as infrastructure, construction and other one-time costs. The projects are chosen based on a set of guidelines. A WAH projects working group thoroughly studies the candidates and narrows the field to about 10 potential projects. Asha-wide review is sought in which Asha volunteers everywhere discuss the candidates and eventually rank them. The top few projects are selected for WAH funding. 2003 Financials Summary Donation: Datamatics Consultants Inc: $1000.00 Niloy Inc : $1000.00 Fund-raising Events: Festival of India : $625.00 GATS fund-raiser : $2061.00 Net Income : $5856.00 Expenses Rehabilitation Center project grant: $2020.00 Credit card transactions over Asha main site: $5.10 Net Expenses :$2025.10 Opening Balance : $0.00 Income : $5856.00 Expenses : $2025.10 Ending balance : $3830.90 * `Asha Sandesh’ is a phrase in the Hindi language that translates to `Message from Asha’. The word `Asha’ means hope, while `Sandesh’ means message. This newsletter brings you the message about the on-going activities of Asha-Atlanta.

2. Work an Hour (contd.) Like all Asha projects, they are closely monitored by Asha project co-ordinators to ensure that the funds are being properly utilized and the proposed benefits are actually being realised by the children at the project. WAH 2004 Projects: Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha Juanga, Orissa school Project Look Ahead Vanashree To Reach You Champa Mahila Society  Visit: http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/ to donate! ASHA-ATLANTA Vol. 2, No. 3, July-Sept 2004 Coordinator Udai Tennati Publicity/Fundraising Gaurav Bakshi Ashok Narayan Sreechand Ramesh Singh Pat Srinivas Suneet Treasurer Anup Lakare Projects Lavanya S. Sailaja Tennati Vani Sarin Puneet Sarin Web/Newsletter Sathyan Subbiah Reshma Desai Ramesh Singh Asha for Education is a non-profit public benefit corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for charitable purposes. Our Federal Employee Identification number is 77-0459884. It has been granted a federal tax-exempt status under IRS Code Section 501(c). Events update: We had three booths at the Heritage India Festival at the Gwinnet County Fairgrounds on June 12-13. The event was a success for us - thanks to all of you who visited our booths. Despite a scorching 104oF on Saturday, our volunteers did a very good job of organizing different events in the booths such as candle making, mehendi, ring-the-coke, quizzes and painting. We also held a raffle with fun prizes. Arragon the Magician did some spectacular magic shows, while his wife and daughter did balloon making and face painting. Candle making and Mehendi were big hits with the crowd. We had a number of business who sponsored our banner drive – including Icoachmath, Malani Jewlers, Global Groceries, Istanbul Café, and Chinese Rasoi. Freedom Walk/RunAs part of the Festival of India (FoI) celebrations, Asha for Education is conducting a 5k Freedom Walk/Run. The walk/run is symbolic of not only the culture of India, and its independence, but also for the cause of helping educate children in India who cannot afford it. Please participate in this run and help us. You can also pledge to raise an amount towards the run. Venue: Student Center, Georgia Tech. The route is in and around the campus Date & Time: Sun, August 15, 2004, 7am Fee: Student - $10 (students get free t-shirt at end of run) Others - $15 Pledge amounts: $50, $75, $100, $150, or more!

3. Asha is now at Georgia Tech! Asha for Education Georgia Tech is now a chartered student organization. The main motivation behind founding this organization was to augment Atlanta Chapter’s activity. This would also ensure a pool of volunteers and access to Georgia Tech’s facilities. There are currently ten volunteers in the chapter. Asha setup information table at the new student orientation sessions to interact with the freshmen. A two-minute commercial about the objectives and modus operandi of Asha was displayed during these sessions. Quite a few freshmen expressed there inclination to volunteer for Asha. In near future we hope to see these volunteers actively participating in Asha’s endeavors. The Georgia Tech chapter also proposes to organize fundraising events at Tech once the interested volunteers are ready commit their time and energy for Asha activities. Asha Atlanta wishes the newly formed organization good luck in all their future endeavors. Projects Update We will starting to fund a new project soon – Door Step. Door Step School is a registered non-profit organization working in Mumbai and Pune, India. They conduct non-formal education classes for out of school and working children (7 to 18 years of age) residing in slums, on pavements, docks etc. With the introduction of the "School on Wheels" bus, Door Step has come closer to fulfilling one of its major objectives - making basic education easily accessible to a larger number of children. The bus drops off the children to school and also acts as a classroom for 5 sessions during the day. It also runs similar classes for adolescent girls whose parents are often reluctant to send them to school and have to work to supplement the family income. DSS also runs Balwadis for pre-school children, so that they are prepared to enroll in school when they are old enough. Doorstep has also recognized the need for children enrolled in school to remain so and to that end runs study classes for first generation learners who have little or no support at home. Purpose / Goals Door Step School has one fundamental goal: making education accessible to working children who may not otherwise have access to a regular school. This organisation has been working towards this goal since 1988.

4. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to farm spiders for their silk because they tend to eat each other. So scientists have tried a variety of different methods to produce the silk without arachnid help. One of the more successful relies on stealing the spider's silk gene and putting it into something more friendly – like a goat. Spider-GoatsIn an unlikely coupling, genetic engineers have now bred goats that have spider silk genes inside them. By doing this, they can harvest the silk proteins from the goat's milk (silky milk, anyone?). The silk gene was just one of 70,000 that make up the DNA blueprint for building a normal goat. In adult female goats, the silk gene is activated only while the animal is producing milk. One goat can produce about 7g of silk per day. Spiders in space and surgeryCalled 'biosteel', the silk is lighter, yet tougher than Kevlar, and nearly as elastic as nylon. It could be used in medical supplies, space equipment and bullet-proof vests. So there's a new superhero in town. Swinging from skyscraper to skyscraper, fighting crime as it shoots jets of silk from its udders, it's … Spider-Goat! Children’s Corner – Spider man and all that …(http://www.bbc.co.uk/science) Why can spiders walk up walls?Spider-Man can stick to almost any surface. Many spiders do this by secreting a little bit of sticky silk onto their feet as they move across the surface, anchoring their feet in place. Others have millions of specially shaped, microscopic hairs on their legs that slip into all the nooks and crannies of a ceiling or window. This helps them to stay secure, like a climber using the tiny cracks in a rock face to reach the top of a mountain. This also explains why you find spiders in the bath - they can't get a grip on the smooth surface to climb out. Stronger than steelAnyone who has ever walked into a spider's web knows that the silk is deceptively strong, despite its gossamer appearance. Dragline silk, which spiders use to crawl down from ceiling to floor, is the strongest of all. Weight for weight it is actually stronger than steel, holding over 280,000,000kg per square metre (400,000 pounds per square inch) without breaking. WOULD YOU LIKE TO VOLUNTEER? AWESOME! – CONTACT UDAI utennati @ hotmail.com FOR MORE DETAILS! Our Corporate Sponsors DCT SYSTEMS (NILOY INC.)