Nerve Endings Firing Away

Ash and I have been looking for avenues to donate money to charity in India. Our previous personal donations have gone to AID India and Project Why in addition to those donation drives at DesiPundit. We prefer donating to more direct causes instead of large organizations like Red Cross which are already inundated with attention and money. We had previously explored the option of sending money to our relatives who would be in a better position to donate it directly to local causes but that still involves coordination and debate. I have always been a bit suspicious of the Adopt a Child campaigns that you see advertised often in the U.S because of the strong religion component in those organizations.

That’s why I was kicked to read this post on Nitin’s blog about the School Choice Campaign in India. Education has always been close to my heart and I agree with his assessment that it is the single most important factor in continuing India’s economic progress:

Centre for Civil Society’s School Voucher Program will award vouchers to 9400 primary school students across India. Each voucher worth upto INR 6000 will fund one child’s education in the school of their choice for a year. The voucher will be given until they complete their primary education from their preferred school [Read more at School Choice]. Rs.6000 which roughly equals $150 is not bad for an annual contribution to charity and even manageable for our household which still has one member in grad school. Also, school vouchers are considered to be one of the most viable options in education policy as it gives parents the freedom to choose the best school for their child without imposing any unnecessary limits.

If you too are looking for places to make serious contributions to charity, School Choice sounds like a perfect avenue.