SAN FRANCISCO: This year's annual American India Foundation's (AIF) fundraising Gala saw a young woman from Andhra Pradesh, Pushpanjali Majhi address the audience and share her life experiences. “When I was little, my family would migrate to Hyderabad every summer to work in brick kilns. I would go along too. It was very hot. Some children would die working in these kilns. AIF India changed everything for me,” she said.
“They got me admitted into an AIF sponsored hostel where I received accommodation, food, and education. I began to feel that I could become something. There was no electricity in our village. We would use solar lamps to get by. The hostel changed my life. I would not have to go to work in the brick kilns any more. I decided I will become a teacher one day. AIF changed the life of my parents too. Without AIF I would never have been able to complete my education. I wish that all the girls in my village will be able to go to school one day.”
Held at the Hilton Hotel on May 13, the Gala hosted almost 600 guests who helped raise $1.5 million in support of the foundation's poverty alleviation solutions across India. AIF's Learning and Migration program was showcased, and the foundation's work for India's neglected rural children whose families migrate for work, was shown. Co-founder and co-chair Lata Krishnan hosted a fireside chat with co-chair Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard, on the role women can and should play in all walks of life, in the US and, India.
Founded in 2001 at the initiative of President Bill Clinton following a request from Prime Minister Vajpayee, AIF has impacted the lives of 2.3 million of India’s poor and aims to reach 5 million by 2018. According to Krishnan, AIF has helped 91,000 children receive education and 3,248 rickshaw pullers acquired their own rickshaws. In related news, AIF announced last month that the Houston, Texas-based non-profit organization Ek Disha Foundation will join AIF in its work toward a poverty-free India and become its new Houston chapter.
