ASHA is very decentralized form of organization
and that is our strength also. It started in
1991, in the university of California campus,
then it expanded, we have chapters, most of
then abroad. Each one of them functions independently.They
do their activities on their own and we collaborate
by sharing information over the internet. So
we have websites, yahoo groups wherein we interact
with each other.We
took some decisions right in the beginning which
has proved very beneficial for the organization.
For example, we decided not to have overhead,
so 100% funds we raise abroad come to India.
We have no office abroad or even in India. We
function without an infrastructure. Because
we believe that what ever money we are raising
must benefit the poor, for whom we are doing
this. All the money goes to the project like
snacks for children, books, uniforms, buildings
for schools. We have no office bearers except
for whatever we require to fulfill the government
responsibilities; we have a official board of
trustees. But it doesn’t have the executive
powers; all our decisions are taken in open
meetings. Anybody can walk into the meetings
and be a part of ASHA. You are a part of ASHA
as long as you’re active; as soon as you
seize to be active then you are out. There is
no formal membership, it’s a very informal
network of people, working essentially based
on their relationships with each other and so
far we do not have any problems because of the
structure and it has worked really well.
We are proud to have big network of volunteers
most of them doing part time, with their job
but devoting their time to ASHA. In India now
the volunteering level is emerging in the grassroots.
People who are from rural background who are
working on full time projects and other ASHA
volunteers supporting them by raising funds.
