Past & forthcoming events (2009 – http://groups.yahoo.

com/group
2010)
May 3, 2009: "The ISO Spring Fiesta" – publicity
and awareness stall set up at SUNY Albany.
May 23-25, 2009: AID Troy represented at the
11th Annual Conference of AID USA. The event
was hosted by AID Duke, Durham, NC. Visit:
http://conference.aidindia.org/ for more
/aidrpi/. Charity Navigator, America's largest
independent evaluator of charities awarded AID 4-star
rating for both organizational efficiency and
For more information on AID Troy and volunteer
organizational capacity for consecutive years (rating
contacts, visit:
68.84 out of 70).
http://troy.aidindia.org/About AID Donations to AID are tax-deductible in the USA.
Association for India's Development is a It is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable
volunteer movement promoting sustainable, organization with tax ID 04-3652609.
equitable and just development. AID supports
grassroots organizations in India and initiates For more information, please visit us at

info. efforts in various interconnected spheres such as

education, livelihoods, natural resources
June 7, 2009: "Tri-City India Association Spring including land, water and energy, agriculture,
Festival”– publicity and awareness stall set up at health, women's empowerment and social
The Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY. justice.

June 12, 2009: Guest Talk by Mr. Damodaran
and Mr. Dharmendra from Eureka Child Program,
(http://www.eurekachild.org/).
June 23-24, 2009: Aid-Troy Cricket Tournament
2009, a fundraising cricket tournament held at
Harkness turf Field, RPI, Troy NY.
http://gradisa.union.rpi.edu/cricket/.
Main target areas and some projects
supported by AID:
Child education.Platform schools in Orissa
Health.Training camps for workers in rural Assam
Women.s empowerment.The Vimukti project
Sustainable development. Alternative technologies.
The Bijili Bike Microcredit enterprises http://www.aidindia.org
The Hundred Block Plan. A new people’s movement

August 28, 2009: Pep talk at the 2009-2010

GradISA Welcome party.

September 26, 2009: Regional Retreat in Penn

State; Supporting AID Penn State in setting up Association for India’s
stalls towards their conference game against
IOWA. More info to follow. Development
Troy – Chapter
Facts
October 10, 2009: SWAAD 2009 - Fundraising Founded: 1991
Luncheon organized by AID in association with Incorporated: 2003
GradISA. Chapters in the US: 40
Chapters in India: 6
November 2009: Guest presentation and Number of Volunteers: ~1000
Projects Supported: ~365 Courage | Commitment | Change
Documentary by UNICEF on AID Saathi, Mr.
Srinivasan, followed by guest presentation by Mr.
Indian States Represented: 18 sMaQaYa- saovaa inamaa-Na
Annual Visit to each Project: All
Srinivasan on model project at Vellore district,
Tamilnadu titled “Zero Waste management” “There are two types of people who will tell
http://zerowastemanagement.org/. you AID Troy
____________________________________________ that you cannot make a difference in this Rensselaer Union,
Our Regular meetings: We hold Community world. 15th Street, Troy NY - 12180
Service Hours (CSH) biweekly at the Rensselaer Those who are afraid to try and
Union. Meeting date & time are announced
through our yahoo group mail.
those who are afraid that you
will succeed”
www.troy.aidindia.org
- Ray Goforth
troy@aidindia.org
 league matches (8 of them were from various AID Troy funded a sum of $1500 towards
zones of capital district). The 8-a-side tennis ball education.
cricket tournament added a full day of cricket
and fun, while contributing to a great cause.
Annual Penny Drive. Parichay
Bal Vikas Kendra (Child Development
We are carrying out the "Penny Drive"
Center) was started by Parichay in April 2000 in
initiative to collect the coins
Tukhmirpur near Bhajanpura in east Delhi. The
(like - penny, dime, cent, etc),
population includes children of rickshaw pullers
which are mostly unused and
who have come from Bangladesh or Bihar,
scrap-heaped, as donations.
Cobblers, Carpenters, hawkers, drum players,
The collected amount from
embroiders and laborers working in small industrial
this initiative will be directed
units. A child is educated in the NFE classes for a
for the funding of the projects
Fundraisers: in India by AID-Troy chapter. Any additional
period of 3 years and then put in to formal School.
AID Troy
SWAAD 03, 04, 06, 09: donations for this cause are also welcome.
funded $
The AID-Troy 2000
luncheon has always been
a big success! Not only was
Projects funded towards
there a huge attendance, BSS micro-credit Project
the attendees were very AID-RPI decided to support (subject to
happy with the food, meeting other
organization and events. requirements as specified nonformal education to underpriviledged children
Proceedings of which have by AID) a micro-credit & Vocational training to mentally challenged
been used to support a wide variety of project based in South people.
developmental projects towards an improved life India. The NGO in question
for the poor and underprivileged in India. is Bharatha Swamukthi
Puppet Show 2004 Samsthe (BSS). The FABLAB at Vigyan Ashram
A show full of Fun, following is the sequence of Fablab is
Fantasy & Ribtickling Humor events and relevant documents (minutes of basically a collection of
with Life Like Puppets & meetings, BSS' replies to AID-RPI's questions, set of computerized
Music – was presented by Excel documents related to BSS activities etc.) high-tech tools, which
Ramdas Padhye & Aparna that led to this decision. AID Troy funded $2000 can be used to fabricate
Ramdas at the RPI Troy towards Offering microcredit loans to the instruments of any
campus. He is the only Indian Ventriloquist to economically weaker sections in the rural areas. utility and
have performed at the Vent Haven Convention, configuration. A place
Cincinnati, U.S.A. (1992 and 2002). that empowers you to
TARANG 2003
Vidyarambam make almost anything! Vigyan Ashram is a training
Vidyarambam is a pre-school education school for rural dropouts. These students are
Tarang was the project for children in the age group 3 to 6 years. working on various projects. Projects can be
second fundraiser event Learning centres were started in various remote anything from simply making T-shirt using screen-
conducted by the Troy villages in Tamil Nadu during June 2002 and has printing to making PCBs and toys
chapter. As with the lunch,
AID Troy supported the project with a sum
the event was extremely well
of $ 3000 (~ 50% of the project cost).
received by the Indian
community in RPI and capital region.
AID-Troy Cricket Tournament expanded to 325 learning centres (in June 2004) Aid Saathiship
2009 tutoring 6525 children (about 25 children per 2009-MalikaVirdi-
The première AID Cricket Cup was centre). Children are selected from economically
organized in association backward and illiterate families in the villages. Saathiship
with the GradISA RPI on The tutor is selected from the same village and Malika is an avid
27th and 28th of 2009. 13 he/she is paid (http://vidyarambam.org/). mountain, people and nature
teams participated in person. She has worked for
nearly 3 decades on various human rights and
women rights related issues in many places
across India (Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and
Uttaranchal). Presently she is the Sarpanch of the
Sarmoli village Forest Council (Van Panchayat).

Malika has been working on these

following areas in the
past year:
-Strenthening democratic
institutions
- Building networks,
alliances and broad
basing our understanding
- Women's Issues
- Livelihood Issues and
Food Security
- Ecological Security issues

More details about her work:

www.aidboston.org/MalikaVirdi

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JOIN US AND HELP MAKE A
DIFFERENCE….