Ek Aastha

Chris and Prakalpa Bastianpillai founded Ek Aastha in 2008 as a private fund. The mission was to encourage and support the education of the under-privileged in third world countries with the intention of reducing the level of illiteracy and poverty. The fund originally supported five children from the Parvati slum area in Pune, Maharastra, to attend school. Ek Aastha expanded into a nonprofit organization supporting twenty-two children’s schooling. Volunteers with the organization provide support to the children by meeting with them in their homes, speaking to their parents, particularly their mothers, about the importance of education, and work to improve the conditions at the schools themselves.