Asha Seattle was introduced to me in 1998 through my kid’s fancy dress parade. My elder son was 3 years old and he had dressed up as Mahatma Gandhi. In that event, Asha for Education’s mission inspired me and my husband so much that we started making donations to Asha. We attended various Asha’s cultural events like Geetanjali and AllGoRythms. My son participated in junior Asha when he was in high school where he learnt a lot about India and its culture.

Whenever I made donations, attended events and took my son to junior Asha, I wondered, “People working behind these scenes must be passionate about making India a better country”. Their dedication is seen clearly in all events. I wanted to become an Asha volunteer since then but I started only earlier this year. I am really proud to be part of the Asha team of volunteers. In our bimonthly chapter meetings, I was amazed seeing the team working sincerely until 8.30pm to review a funding request, for a school run for underprivileged children, for a school run for physically challenged children, to review a new long term project, review a one-time funding request for a recent disaster happened in India like Chennai flood, plan an upcoming event and so on.

I have always seen an extreme level of respect to ideas, maturity and intelligence displayed in all meetings. It doesn’t stop there, plenty of follow ups and updates happen constantly to make them happen. I realized that all of them have a family to take care and a full time job, still they volunteer enthusiastically for Asha. Looking at them I thought, ‘Asha work has become part of their life. Is this the definition of Passion and dedication?’

I am so proud to serve for Asha and looking forward to be part of all wonderful things Asha is going to do in the upcoming years.

-Kamini Parasurama