How we work
Five rules, and how each one is kept.
A promise is only worth something if you can check it. For each rule below we say what you will be able to see on this site.
One public ledger
Every rupee that comes in and every rupee that goes out is listed on this site, with the date and what it paid for. You do not have to ask. Where to check: the ledger, updated whenever money moves.
Projects that finish
Each project has a place, a budget, a start date and an end date before it begins. When it ends we publish what was promised beside what happened. Where to check: each project page, which shows its plan and its closing report side by side.
Proof before praise
A classroom counts when children in it can read a paragraph they could not read before. A tap counts when it still runs a year later. We report those checks, including the ones that fail. Where to check: the results table on each project page, with the test used and the date.
Skills that end in income
A skills course is complete when the learner has earned money with the skill: a first sale, a first client, a first salary. Certificates alone do not count. Where to check: the earnings totals for each course, gathered at three, six and twelve months.
Learners become teachers
People who finish a course are the first we ask to teach the next one, and they are paid for it. The knowledge stays in the place. Where to check: each course page names how many of its teachers were once its learners.
The path of a gift
What happens between giving and a result.
Written up
Place, people, budget, dates, measure of success.
Funded
Gifts tied to the project, progress shown.
Done
Local people, trained and paid. Receipts in the ledger.
Checked
Tests, water samples, earnings.
Reported
To every giver, in plain words.
How we use pictures
People are not props.
Charity advertising often shows people at their worst moment to make you give. We will not.
- We photograph people at work, learning and at ease, the way they would want to be seen.
- We ask first. For a child, we ask the parent or guardian. Anyone can say no or change their mind later, and the picture comes down.
- Our own project photographs carry the place and the month they were taken.
- Until we have our own, some photographs on this site show daily life and learning in general. They do not show people Astha has worked with, and we do not say they do.
What we will not do
A short list.
- Count the same person twice to make a number bigger.
- Claim a result we did not measure.
- Start a project we cannot afford to finish.
- Sell, rent or share the details of anyone who writes to us.
- Hide a failure. If something did not work, the report will say so.
Get involved
Join us.
Astha is being built now. People who join in the first year shape what it becomes, and their names stay on the record of how it began.
- Give timeTeach, mentor, translate, photograph, keep books.
- Point us to a needA school without readers. A village without a working tap.
- Fund a projectTell us what you would back. A trustee replies with the project, its budget and how to give.