RangDe.Org is an online micro-lending platform where you can connect with a borrower of micro-credit by lending small sums of money small sums of money to an individual of a low income household. The money that you lend serves as the working capital for a micro-enterprise in a village or ...

Bay Area residents are quite familiar with Ray Mitra – if not personally then through the terrific Bollywood parties and cultural events his non-profit organization Induz organizes. Induz's mission has always been to use events to generate funds for deserving non-profits within the community and back in India. A significant ...

By Vidya Pradhan Manjula Gupta is no stranger to philanthropy. Once a software entrepreneur in the valley, she became involved with the American India Foundation (AIF) in its nascent years. As a volunteer Chair for the India Community Center, she worked to bring the community together by starting programs such as the weekly karaoke club. In the course of her varied experiences, she tapped into the rich vein of philanthropy that runs through the successful Indian American community in the Bay Area. “There are so many Indian Americans doing amazing work,” she says. “I found that there was a need to give them a platform.” When the mayor of Milpitas approached her to start a community based program, she found her calling. "Chai with Manjula", a TV show focusing on Indian American good Samaritans, now airs in 11 cities throughout the area.( More cities are being added.)

By Aarti Johri Hindu mythology is overflowing with tales. From the epics, to the Puranas, to folk lore, each family has its own endless treasure. My own favorite is a no-name one, or one that my mother would simply call “Asha, Pyaas, Neend, Bhook”. This translates in English to “Hope, Thirst, Sleep, Hunger”.

By Vidya Pradhan When your car stops at a traffic light in India, invariably a swarm of street kids collects around it. Maybe you are an IT professional. Maybe you are a tourist. Either way, your pockets are jingling with change from your last meal or chai; change that is, for all practical purposes, useless to you. It is so tempting to hand over that change to one of the raggedy street urchins. Maybe it will buy them their next meal, save them from having to hold their hand out for an hour or two. You get the warm glow that doing a good deed creates; they get a reprieve from their unhappy lives, even if it is for a short while. What is wrong with this picture?

It all began when, sick of the materialism and unashamed greed of the holiday season,I suggested to my 11 year old that he give, instead of receive, this Christmas. He was surprisingly receptive. Having planned a holiday trip to India, I suggested to family back there that maybe we could ...

Swami Vivekananda, the great Hindu pioneer and diplomat to the United States who helped drive the modernization of India, once said, “Arise, awake. Stop not till the goal is reached.” The North South Foundation under Dr. Ratnam Chitturi’s direction has continued Swami Vivekananda’s mission in uniting Indians of many different ...

For most of us, ‘Checkbook Charity’ is the way we assuage our conscience. It is painless, effortless and gives a rush of good feeling with the stroke of a pen. Few of us go beyond that first step to examine the impact our donation has had on the recipient. Doctor ...

It is an immigrant’s tale as old as time. Rukhsana( not her real name) was brought to the US from her native South Asian country on a fiancée visa. Once she was married, her in-laws found many excuses not to proceed with her green card application. This ensured that the ...

Sometime in the nineties, I visited an ordinary house in Secunderabad. I was received with a lovely smile and made to feel welcome by a little boy who said “Hello aunty, Namaste. Please sit down, Manjula madam will come soon.” I sat at the entrance lounge and noticed that the ...