Fifty-six years after Independence, India has made an impression on the world as one of South Asia’s most promising nations. India supplies 35 percent of the world’s software engineers, and more than 65 percent of the country’s population is now literate. But the rapid strides made by the country have also left behind some of her neediest. The land of a billion people also has more than four million people infected with HIV. As many as 42 percent of these are women and children. More than half the country’s population lives on less than $1.50 a day, and nearly half the women in India are illiterate.

For more than five years now, the Washington, DC-based United Nations Foundation, created by media mogul Ted Turner, has worked in India to improve children’s health, eradicate the scourge of diseases like HIV/AIDS and polio, and empower women with livelihoods in an effort to alleviate poverty. The UN Foundation has recognized India’s promise by investing more than $24 million toward development there.

The Foundation is now calling on all Indians in the United States and elsewhere to join hands with it to help the neediest in their motherland with a $56,000 challenge to celebrate India’s 56th Independence Day. By Aug. 31 this year, the Foundation hopes to raise $56,000 from Indians in the United States, with all the money going toward UN projects in India.

What is more, the Foundation will match every gift dollar-for-dollar, up to $56,000, generating a total of $112,000 for India. A little money can go a long way in India. For instance, a dollar from the Indian community – matched with a dollar from the Foundation – could vaccinate at least two children. Two dollars could also help a vulnerable girl child learn about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and how to avoid contracting the virus.

“Partnering with the UN Foundation is an excellent opportunity for all those who wish to make a difference in India,” said Seema Paul, an Indian national and Senior Program Officer at the UN Foundation spearheading this effort. “We provide access to 50 years of UN expertise in development and magnify our partners’ contributions with our own resources.”

The UN Foundation funds programs in India that are developed and implemented by the United Nations and its agencies. Funded programs are diverse and are improving children’s health care, empowering women through employment, alleviating poverty, promoting environmental conservation and reducing the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

For instance, in Andhra Pradesh the UN Foundation is working to ensure access to renewable energy for 20,000 families and business enterprises. We have provided women in rural areas with training skills and micro-credit to launch small business activities like food production and livestock maintenance. We are launching projects to protect India’s rich environmental heritage by providing rural communities around the country’s five natural World Heritage sites skills for alternative sources of income that do not disturb these precious and unique areas.

“Support from nearly 20 million Indians who live outside the country – and particularly the 1.7 million in the United States – can make a big difference to India’s future. By partnering with the UN Foundation, they can become part of that difference,” Ms. Paul said. The $56,000 challenge grant is one of the multiple initiatives that UN Foundation is undertaking to partner with the Indian community in the United States with the goal of promoting developmental work in India with the UN. The UN Foundation has supported polio vaccinations in a country with 80 percent of the world’s polio cases, a disease approaching eradication elsewhere. In addition, the Foundation has supported projects that help children receive zinc supplements, a method proven to aid growth and reduce mortality.

UN Foundation funded projects are educating women and girls about their reproductive rights and empowering them against unwanted and unsafe sexual encounters while simultaneously granting access to better reproductive health services.

With four million Indians already suffering from HIV/AIDS, 42 percent of whom are women and children, the Foundation is fighting to halt its progression and protect those already infected.

India ranks 127 out of 172 nations on the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index, which measures the quality of life in countries using factors such as life expectancy, adult literacy rate and per capita income. Less than 40 percent of the eligible population is employed full-time and one-half of all Indians earn less than $1.50 a day.

Donations can be made through the UN Foundation’s India website, www.PrideInIndia.org, launched to coincide with India’s Independence Day on August 15. For more information on the UN Foundation’s grantmaking to India, or to make a contribution, visit www.PrideInIndia.org

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