RENEWED HOPE

We recently had to face the hard decision of closing up our Day Care Center in Phule Nagar. Since this shanty town was illegally settled and the municipal authorities used to demolish the entire settlement several times a year, our continuity here was a challenge we always faced with determination. After each demolition, the settlers used to rush to the site to pick up the Center's material and helped us rebuild it. However, after three demolitions in just one month and after the families decided to look for a new site to settle on, there was no point in Asha-Kiran staying there, so we quickly looked for and found another area that met the conditions for us to build another Day Care Center.

This other slum, located in the Hadapsar area, has a population of 30 to 40 families. The parents there showed a keen interest in our work even before we began building the DCC, which now, a month after it opened, 25 to 30 children attend, most of them girls. It is a good start, considering we are still in the process to get to know the residents of this community.

We recently held a meeting to which many parents came and in which the objectives and methodology of our work were broadly explained. The attendants also had a chance to state their points of view, and expressed their interest and intention of taking advantage of the chance their children will have of expanding their future prospects.

It was in a different slum of the Hadapsar area where A-K set up, two years ago, its first DCC, which we had to close down due to the upcoming construction of a highway that would cut right through that settlement.

Even though it hasn't been feasible to continue our work in Phule Nagar, where our efforts were very productive and there were many enriching experiences both for Asha-Kiran's team and for our beneficiaries during the year and a half that the Center remained open, we are glad to have found another area where our services are needed and where we will be able to provide them.

We likewise thank Seur for their support with the Day Care Centers Project, of which they finance 60%, and for their trust in Asha-Kiran.

Affectionately,

Asha-Kiran Spain and India.

ASHA-KIRAN AND BOLLYMADRID IN 2009

Just as in 2008, Fundación Asha-Kiran has taken part in the BollyMadrid Festival in Lavapiés, a cultural event that gathered, for the second year in a row, thousands of people in the streets of Lavapiés borough for three days (5th, 6th and 7th of june) with the aim of making the indian culture known through Bollywood movies, dance shows and a wide array of indian food. The organizers of the event also invited NGOs that, just as we do, work with disadvantaged social groups in India.

The public's response to the labor we do with vulnerable children in that country has been very positive; this shows, on the one hand, that we are slowly accomplishing our goal of bringing people closer to the reality of marginalized sectors of society, and on the other, awakening the desire to contribute to the improvement of these sectors' living conditions.

Aside from having Paola Dominguín Bosé as a visitor at Asha-Kiran's stand, we also had many Volunteers from several corners of Spain who brought their vitality with them so that our participation in the festival could be a success. This was done through the sale of indian articles, organizing children's workshops and talking to the public so as to build trust in our Foundation and our social endeavors.

To all – individuals, NGOs, businesses and Volunteers – who gave us a hand during this color-, joy- and hope-laden weekend: THANK YOU.

Any contribution – in any amount and of any kind – results in the widening of possibilities for our beneficiaries: vulnerable children, their families and their communities. We hope that these contributions will also result in a feeling of satisfaction in a public that is increasingly aware of the fact that their contribution – however small – is essential to build a better present and a better future for children who need and appreciate having a ray of hope in their lives.

If you're not familiar with us yet, you are invited to come closer to Asha-Kiran. We welcome you in advance to the vitality that shares vitality.

We hope to see you again soon.

Uttam Módenes and Asha-Kiran.

SOLIDARITY DINNER AND FUN

On May 16th, Lliçà Solidari, a socially-oriented association with headquarters in Lliçà d’ Amunt (Barcelona) hosted a solidarity dinner full of exotic flavors, colors and ethnic variety.
Lliçà Solidari has been organizing this get-together for the past few years. The aims behind it are:

• To facilitate coexistence and acknowledgement of people from other countries that live in the municipality of Lliçà D´Munt.
• To present the projects it supports and to raise funds for them. This year, just as last, one of the NGOs whose projects it will back up will be Fundación Asha-Kiran.

Around 30 people prepared food from their country of origin so that the diners could sample an assortment of dishes from Bolivia, Nepal, Belgium, France, Ecuador and Senegal. Counting cooks and diners, around 250 people enjoyed both the dinner and the brotherly and festive atmosphere.

After the dinner, there was a short Indian dance show to round off the get-together.

Lliça Solidari states: “From Lliçà Solidari, we will continue to work together with Asha-Kiran so that they may carry on with their solidarity endeavors in India.”

From Asha-Kiran, we are once again thankful for being able to go on walking hand-in-hand with Lliçà Solidari.

Uttam Módenes.

ASHA-KIRAN in BOLLYMADRID 2009

The second Bollywood and Indian culture festival will take place in Madrid on June 5th, 6th and 7th.
Organizer: Madrid Central District City Hall and Lavapiés Neighbors Association

• Multidisciplinary and integration Indian culture week in the Lavapiés borough.

• It will take place throughout Lavapiés, with a wide array of cultural and visual features.

• The cultural agenda will be distributed in themes among the following town squares:

- Food at Lavapiés Square

- Bollywood films at Agustín Lara Square

- Handicrafts and design at Corrala Square

At Corrala Square there will also be separate spaces for several NGOs that work in India and wish to make their work known to the public, enlist new sponsors or simply carry out activities in relation to the themes in question.

Just as last year, FUNDACIÓN ASHA-KIRAN will have a marquee and a handicrafts stand at Corrala Square, and will also organize various activities and children’s workshops.

COME SEE US AND FIND OUT ABOUT OUR SOCIAL ENDEAVORS

Place: Corrala Square, Lavapiés Borough (Madrid). Metro Lavapiés.
Schedule: from 10 am to 8 pm

For further information, please contact us at:

(+34) 913 920 688 fundacion@asha-kiran.org.es

www.bollymadrid.com

4 LÍRICAS CHARITY CONCERT IN MÁLAGA

On Saturday, May 2nd, the quartet 4 Líricas gave an Opera and Zarzuela Concert for Fundación Asha-Kiran in Málaga, Spain, which around 250 people attended, the benefits of which will go to our Projects with vulnerable children in India.

After all the preparations that a cultural and social ceremony such as this entails, we feel deeply grateful and pleased with the outcome and everything we received.

We wish to thank the members of 4 Líricas: León, Bernardina, Juan Manuel and Sergio for the generosity of their voices and their hearts.

Our thanks to Antonio, Ángel and Javier, from Málaga County Council, for their availability and for making it easy.

Thanks to Daniel Muriel for his musical whirlwind and his personal touches.

Thanks to Carmen, Ana, Esther, Mª Ángeles and Esther Gálvez for their cooperation, solidarity, effort and for spreading the word.

Thanks to all of those who participated in, were moved by, and enjoyed the performance; to the children who came and to their parents for coming with them.

Thanks to Kamar, the “fifth rose” (she already knows why).

Thanks to Hansa and José Luis for BEING THERE.

Thanks to those who couldn’t come, but were present in our hearts.

Thanks to those who believed in order to see, and also to those who had to see in order to believe.

At Fundación Asha-Kiran, we wish to keep on making Art and Creativity available. This way, we hope to contribute to the building of a better world, a better society, a fairer future. Art opens us, it connects us, it invites us to dream.

Signed:
Remedios Montoro, Board Member of Fundación Asha-Kiran.

FUNDACIÓN ASHA-KIRAN AND FUNDACIÓN SEUR: UNCOVERING NEW PATHS

On April 20th, Hansa Sousa, Vice-president of Fundación Asha-Kiran, and Ramón Mayo González, President of Fundación Seur, signed a cooperation agreement through which Fundación Seur launches a new Project called Abriendo Caminos.

By this agreement, Fundación Seur will back up the social endeavors of Asha-Kiran’s Project Day Care Centers for Vulnerable Children by providing 60% of the Project’s budget. A-K will be responsible for the remaining 40% of the budget.

This contribution will bring us even closer to the Project’s objectives, whose main aim is to offer care and protection services to vulnerable children in the city of Pune, and to foster their holistic development by providing the following:

• Day care
• Nursery and kindergarten services
• Nutrition and health care
• Education
• Creative and recreational activities
• Personalized psychological support

We are indebted to Seur for the solidarity shown through this agreement of joint work. Asha-Kiran commits itself to use all of the funds obtained on the children who take part in the Day Care Centers Project. We hope this will be a lasting agreement, and that many children will be able to enjoy it.

THANK YOU.

Uttam Módenes, President of A-K.

THANK YOU, LLIÇÀ D' MUNT. THANK YOU, LLIÇÀ SOLIDARI

On February 20th, Fundación Asha-Kiran and Fundación Vicky Sherpa made a presentation of their respective aid-to-development Projects before a large and participating audience in a Cultural Hall of Lliçà D´Munt (Barcelona), under the auspices of Asociación Lliçà Solidari.

Lliçà Solidari and Lliçà D´Munt City Hall have been standing behind Asha-Kiran’s Projects since the beginning. Last year, a large portion of the Oral and Dental Care Program budget came from them.

At the presentation, we had the chance to explain where the funds we have received will go, and inform the public about the work that we do for vulnerable children. Vicky Sherpa, a tireless Catalan who has labored for disadvantaged people in Nepal for over 20 years, was also there.

MANY THANKS to the town of Lliçà D´Munt for its generous and caring contribution to vulnerable people’s lives, and MANY THANKS to Lliçà Solidari Association for trusting Asha-Kiran. Your contribution is welcome and will be put to good use.

A warm hug from Fundación Asha-Kiran.