AIF Celebrates 5 Years
In 2006 AIF celebrates five years of accomplishment towards social and economic development in India.
AIF Executive Director Pradeep Kashyap on Five Years of AIF:
"When I started with AIF in April 2001, the only resource I had was my personal cell phone! Today, five years later, we have built ourselves up to 40 core staff in the US and India, with offices in California, New York, Delhi and Bangalore. We have invested roughly $30 million in India. AIF has awarded grants to 60 high-quality Indian NGOs, sent 100 Service Corps Fellows in six batches, and the Digital Equalizer program has brought technology to touch the lives of 85,000 students and 6,000 teachers in schools across India. I think it is fair to say we have accomplished quite a lot in 5 years."
"In our work we have purposefully targeted some of the most marginalized Indians, who tend to be economically distressed migrants," continues Kashyap. "Thus, the issue of migration has become the central theme in our grantmaking. AIF is funded largely by the Indian Diaspora community, who themselves, in a way, are migrants in the US. The obvious difference, however, is that our counterparts in India are struggling for the most basic survival, while we Indian-Americans have all the opportunities and resources this country has provided us. It makes perfect sense to me, both personally and professionally, to feel a special responsibility towards migrants in India."
AIF President Lata Krishnan on Five Years of AIF:
"In the last five years we have enjoyed the support of an incredible Diaspora and world leaders such as Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and President Bill Clinton, all of whom believe in our vision of creating a platform for philanthropy to address the inequalities faced by marginalized Indians."