We are avid hiking and outdoor enthusiasts who are venturing into Mountaineering for the first time.
This year, we have pledged to raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts, and to educate underprivileged children. To keep us motivated for the pledge, we have taken a personal goal to climb 5 of the highest glaciated active volcanoes in the state of Washington in 90 days – Mt. Rainier(14,411 ft), Mt. Adams(12,280 ft), Mt. Baker(10,781 ft), Glacier Peak(10,541 ft), Mt. Saint Helens(8,366 ft). You can track our climb status here – https://tinyurl.com/climbstatus. The climbs are self-funded by us, and all the donations made go directly to charity.
The non-profit ‘Asha for Education’ who we are working with this year is one of the top charities – 97% of your donation directly goes into funding the actual ground-work. A total of 400,000,000(400 million) of the working population’s livelihood in India are directly impacted by the pandemic. Read about it here – https://tinyurl.com/y7lypmb9. Here is a report about how this charity has helped with COVID-19 in the month of May 2020 – https://ashadocserver.s3.amazonaws.com/925_Covid19-ReliefsupportedbyASHA.pdf
In summary –
1. $60(4500 INR) supports a family of 6 for 3 months with very minimal groceries.
2. $200(15000 INR) will help put 1 underprivileged kid through 1 year of food, supplies, and schooling.
We are requesting your contributions for raising a minimum of $4500(350,000 INR) towards charity in these truly testing times. Please click on the ‘DONATE NOW’ button if you would like to contribute.
Alaka and Akshay
COVID-19 Relief Efforts
In this time of unprecedented crisis, our volunteers on the ground, at great risk to themselves, are taking enormous efforts to help the needy. Some of these include:
- Our volunteers in Varanasi are distributing survival essentials to hundreds of families under lockdown! They also ensure the government schemes reach the most rural communities.
- 250+ families belonging to the Musahar, Dalit and other backward communities in Nagepur, Uttar Pradesh were provided with essential supplies for one month.
- 300+ underprivileged communities in Bhilai, Chattisgarh were provided with dry ration and several people who were on the road walking to their villages were provided with meals.
- 100+ families mostly comprising of daily wage laborers, transgender communities in Tirlokpuri, Delhi who do not have a ration card were provided with dry ration for 1 month.
- 500+ families of migrant laborers in Kanpur were provided with dry ration for a month.
About Asha for Education:
Asha for Education is among the top 1% of nonprofits in the USA which are rated 4-on-4 stars and received a perfect score of 100 on Charity Navigator. Asha operates with very minimal overhead. 97% of your donations go to benefit the education of underprivileged children in India.
Education in India comes with a lot of diverse issues. The problems in this sector esp in under-served communities need local solutions. Asha for Education works closely with multiple grass-root level projects in India striving to bring a change in the local communities. The projects include
- home and education for orphaned children
- improving the quality of education in government schools using innovative teaching-learning methods incl technology
- support for the education of special needs children
- care and education for children rescued from or at-risk of child trafficking
and more.
How can you help?
Our volunteers and projects need our support now more than ever to continue to help these families. PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO THOSE IN DESPERATE NEED: An amount of 40$ – will help provide dry ration for a family of 4 for 1 month.
- Credit Card: Please click the ‘Donate’ button on this page
- Check: Please write the check, in favor of “Asha For Education” and mention 2020 Climbing, Seattle in the memo field. Please send the check directly to:Asha for Education, Seattle Chapter,
PO Box 398080
San Francisco, CA 94139 – 8080and drop me an email
Company Matching: You can double the impact of your donation by getting it matched from your company. Most of the companies match donations by employees to Asha for Education. Please check with your company and let us know. Asha will then contact your company. All donations are 100% tax-deductible (Tax Id 770 45 9884).