About me: I’m a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the Purdue University and have been working with the Purdue Chapter or Asha for Education for almost 5 years now. Why donate? Why for education?
It was not long ago before I found myself asking the same set of questions. Some of the arguments I made for myself to rationalize not donating were these:
“It is my money, why should I donate it for someone I don’t even know.” “I’m a student, and this place is expensive. I need more money for myself.” “A small amount that I donate is not going to make much of a difference anyway.” “Takes too much of an effort.” “All these organisations are a hogwash, you never really know where all the money goes.”
Working with Asha for quite sometime has made me change my views:
1. By donating for education you’re helping a person dream, hope and grow up to be a better person, thus helping the society become more civilized and happy and a better place for everyone to live in including yourself.
2. The cost of providing basic education in India is lesser than few hundred rupees a month. This is less than what most of us spend on one night’s party, or a random dress we liked, or an impromptu picnic we planned. No donation is too small, every bit counts
3. Technology has made things really easy for people wanting to make donations these days, all you need is a credit card or a Paypal account and 2 minutes of your time.
4. Asha is one of those organisations which is completely transparent about it’s finances and is a fully volunteer run organization thus having minimum overhead costs. Being a volunteer myself, I can vouch for it’s credibility and am assured that every single penny you donate is being put to good use.
I find education to be a cause worthy of support in the kind of world we are living in today where knowledge can help anyone live a dignified life of respect and happiness. Whether you choose to support education, health, spirituality, or any other cause is a matter of personal choice and motivation best left to one’s own judgement. But I can assure you that if you chose to support education, Asha would be a befitting place.
Yours,
Rohil