Alumna seeks relief for India sex workers with ASSET
By: Ashley Waggoner
Issue date: 1/17/08 Section: News
"Our goal is to have 10 centers, but our success is measured in how many people we place in internships and jobs," Ray Umashankar said.
NewGen Imaging, a high-tech publishing and data services company with a production center in Chennai and Bangalore, has agreed to hire 20 students as interns or employees when they finish their ASSET training.
"If you raise funds to educate, there are long-term benefits for the person, like a salary," said Nita Umashankar, who received the UA Alumni Association's Leo B. Hart Humanitarian award for the ASSET project.
The Umashankar family had some help in making the ASSET program successful.
Along with several grants from various organizations, IBM and TATA Consultancy Services donated used laptops and PCs. The Dell Foundation gave ASSET a $18,400 grant for new computers. Software, licenses, computing hardware and textbooks came free from Microsoft, NComputing and Aptech.
Also, Parade magazine and the Case Foundation have asked ASSET to participate in a fundraising challenge.
If ASSET gets the most people to donate, it will win $50,000, which will go specifically toward educating 100 children of sex workers in India.
Each student who donates $10 online will be reimbursed $10 immediately, due in part to a $1,000 grant ASSET received.
NewGen Imaging, a high-tech publishing and data services company with a production center in Chennai and Bangalore, has agreed to hire 20 students as interns or employees when they finish their ASSET training.
"If you raise funds to educate, there are long-term benefits for the person, like a salary," said Nita Umashankar, who received the UA Alumni Association's Leo B. Hart Humanitarian award for the ASSET project.
The Umashankar family had some help in making the ASSET program successful.
Along with several grants from various organizations, IBM and TATA Consultancy Services donated used laptops and PCs. The Dell Foundation gave ASSET a $18,400 grant for new computers. Software, licenses, computing hardware and textbooks came free from Microsoft, NComputing and Aptech.
Also, Parade magazine and the Case Foundation have asked ASSET to participate in a fundraising challenge.
If ASSET gets the most people to donate, it will win $50,000, which will go specifically toward educating 100 children of sex workers in India.
Each student who donates $10 online will be reimbursed $10 immediately, due in part to a $1,000 grant ASSET received.
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