One for India
AID Boston's latest brings color to children's lives
Association urging support for kids' magazine drive, year end fund-raiser


By Uma Valluri

 

A year's subscriptions to the magazine, "Indradhanush," costs $3 and helps underprivileged kids in India.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.: It is difficult to imagine children's book without color and illustrations. Such books are generally not very inviting, making the material dull and boring. For many children in India, where illiteracy and poverty continue to be lurking problems, getting educated is a blessing. The children are taught in their vernacular language with textbooks providing mere facts with little or no illustrations. The children often have no means and exposure to extra reading.


Disturbed by these facts, many volunteers of the Association for India's Development have taken upon themselves to make reading fun for under-privileged children in India. This is a challenge in front of all of us, many of us have been fortunate with good education. With a little effort we hope to make learning fun and enjoyable for many, said Shailaja Pathania, Boston resident and project coordinator of AID-Boston. The outcome is a Hindi children's magazine, "Indradhanush" or rainbow. The magazine has a collection of fun science experiments, stories, poems, cartoons, puzzles, jokes, cheerful illustrations, do-it-yourself activities and many questions and answers for children between the ages of 10 to 16.

"Indradhanush" is the joint effort of volunteers from two AID chapters, AID-Boston and AID-Blacksburg (in Virginia). The magazine came into existence last year in collaboration with the All India People's Science Network, which functions as Himachal Gyan Vigyan Samiti in Himachal Pradesh, India.

An "Indradhanush" subscription drive started in November and will continue till the end of December. The goal is to bring 500 subscriptions of the magazine to more than 2,000 kids in India, in 2006. The cost of a year's subscription is only three dollars, said Pathania. There is no profit involved, we barely cover printing costs and are grateful to all who contribute.

We have received an overwhelming response and our efforts seem to paying off, Pathania said. Till now it was all word of mouth, we want to make this an annual fund-raising campaign with the hope to increase the subscription every year.

AID volunteers have been very active in this project by also contributing stories, artwork and translating the material in Hindi. We would also like to acknowledge the work done by many volunteers at the grass root level in India, Pathania added.

AID has many chapters supporting organizations in almost all the states of India. The organization works on issues targeted at improving health, introducing primary education programs, tackling women's issues and development, savings and income programs, and rural development. The myriad problems faced by Indians are too widespread to list, we hope to, with the help of our different chapters, make some breakthrough with our efforts, said Rajeev Soneja, AID-Boston volunteer and Brighton, Mass. resident.

During the season of giving AID as a whole comes together for their annual "One for India" year end campaign. Volunteers are gearing up, soliciting support from the public at large.

Mona Mandal, president of the Boston chapter and Arlington, Mass resident said, Bhopal, India is one of the active campaigns in the Boston area and is a focus for the "One For India" 2005.

While monetary contributions are welcome to support the underprivileged in India, AID volunteers are motivating people to do any 'one thing'  volunteering their time, reading a story to someone in need or just sharing greetings. Sree Ganesan, Sturbridge, Mass. resident and project coordinator of AID-Boston added, We hope people identify any one thing that will bring them and someone else joy.

This year, the aim is to raise $150,000 to support AID initiatives. The organization's slogan is: Donate to AID and we promise that your one contribution will count and make a positive difference in India. Archana Barry, publicity coordinator of the local chapter and Acton, Mass. resident said, We hope "One for India" will bring people together on the Web and eventually help the developmental work undertaken in India.

To learn more and to contribute to Indradhanush, please visit www.aidboston.org/indradhanush. To participate in "One for India", please visit www.oneforindia.org.
 
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