Champaign-Urbana’s Asha for Education held its first Sharad Saavan Dinner and cultural program of the semester Saturday night in the Great Hall of the Wesley Foundation, 1203 W. Green St. The dinner was a buffet dinner, with food cooked and sold by Asha volunteers.

Ramesh Chandrasekharan, graduate student and president of the Champaign-Urbana chapter of Asha, delivered a presentation along with slides describing Asha for Education and their purpose and previous missions. Asha’s goal is to catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of underprivileged children.

Soumyadeb Mitra, graduate student and a member of Asha and coordinator of local projects, said she was very excited about the event and turnout.

“Asha is an organization that works for the education of under-privileged children in India,” Mitra said. “Asha is a very distributed organization with chapters in almost all the big U.S. universities.”

Chapters organize fundraising events, and the money raised helps fund educational projects in India, Mitra said.

In Champaign-Urbana, Asha has held 17 programs and raised over $45,000 to date, Chandrasekharan said. Asha has won recognition as an established charity, as it is completely run and operated by volunteers, he said.

The first show featured cultural performances including Indian music and dance numbers. The president then covered the basics of what Asha is all about, how they raised money and how to use the money raised.

“We raise money from the dinner sales and donation boxes,” Chandrasekharan said. “Usually we have a good mix of students and local residents from the Champaign area attending.”

There were more than 20 items on the menu, ranging from appetizers to mango shakes. There were also other stalls for selling Asha merchandise and mehndi, a design for the hand similar Henna.

“This time, we have also organized a set of cultural performances to make the event more attractive,” Mitra said. “We generally get about 300 or so guests (it’s open to all) in these dinner events and we end up raising more than $2,000. This is a fairly big amount for funding projects in India.”

Ipshita Ray, sophomore in Engineering and performance coordinator for the show, said it was a noble cause for people to get involved with.

“I think tonight’s program was a great way to help raise funds for education in India,” Ray said. “This is the first step in a much larger cause.”

Arpan Chokshi, sophomore in LAS, said he found it very important to help support the movement to educated India’s children.

“With the hard work and education that this group is trying to promote, I really do believe Asha can accomplish their goal of educating the children,” Chokshi said.

Samir Mirza, senior in Engineering, came to the program to support his friends that were performing in the show. He said there was so much that could be done to help support such a cause. There is so much that Indian Americans and all citizens alike can do, he said.

“There are many ways to raise awareness, and many ways to help do our part,” Mirza said. “It is so important to not only be culturally aware and active in all that we do, both in college and after we leave.”