A Team Effort
A School for the New Millennium
Building for the Future
How You Can Help
Photographs
Contact
	Site constructed and maintained by: Douglas W. Shrader / Shradedw@Oneonta.edu
	December 4, 2000

A Team Effort

The story of the Indo-International School reads like a fairy tale. In 1996, students and professors in the Learn and Serve in India program at the State University of New York College at Oneonta established the school to educate 50 impoverished children.  From its humble beginning as a one-room schoolhouse in a building donated by a woman in the village, it moved in 1997 to the former stable of a 17th-century fort provided by the royal couple of Dundlod, Mr. Raghuvendra Singh and Mrs. Ganga Singh.

Through the tireless work of the royal couple as well as Professor Ashok Malhotra and Ms. Linda Drake, co-directors of the Learn and Serve in India program, the school began to prosper. The Ninash Foundation of Oneonta, a charitable organization founded by Dr. Malhotra in memory of his wife Nina "to promote literacy among children and adults throughout the world," established an endowment for the school with the support of the Malhotra family and the Oneonta community.

A School for the New Millennium

On January 15, 2000, the Ninash Foundation and students in SUNY Oneonta's Learn and Serve in India program inaugurated a new building  for the Indo-International School. The school, which is now educating 160 impoverished children, is the realization of the dreams of many. Amazingly, it was funded and constructed in less than nine months.

Land for the school was donated by the royal family. To build six classrooms and related facilities, a French benefactor gave $25,000. With $30,000 from individuals and organizations in the USA, the Ninash Foundation established an endowment for the school to ensure that funds will always be available to pay teachers. The new school building stands as a testament to the fact that people can and do make a difference.

Building for the Future

Through the Ninash Foundation, Professor Malhotra has begun raising funds  to replicate the Indo-International School in other parts of India. The foundation's goal is to raise $1 million to build schools and to educate 50 million impoverished children.   Each year through the endowment, the foundation plans to establish one school and equip it with a library, health center, and well for the host village. Three Indian states have already expressed interest in the next school, which is planned for 2001.

The dedication and success of the Ninash Foundation, Professor Malhotra, and the Learn and Serve in India program have attracted international attention. The Indo-International School was named a "Gift of Service to the World" at the 1999 Parliament of World Religions, where Professor Malhotra had the honor of presenting the project to the Dalai Lama.  Professor Malhotra has been interviewed about the school on ABC World News Now and All India Radio. The project was cited by the East-West Center, which honored Professor Malhotra for promoting US-Asia relations.  Additionally, in naming SUNY-Oneonta to its prestigious Honor Roll for Character Building Colleges, the John Templeton Foundation recognized the Learn and Serve program.

How You Can Help

You can help 50 million underprivileged children of India by supporting the drive to raise $1 million for new school buildings.  Your tax-deductible contribution to the Ninash Foundation, a 501(C)(3) charitable organization, will directly support the project.

A donation of $2500 will build a classroom; $500 will pay a teacher's annual salary; $200 will support a child through an entire year of education; any amount will help to provide supplies for a new facility.  As the individuals in the Learn and Serve in India program have shown, you can make a difference.

Checks, made payable to the Ninash Foundation, can be sent to the following address:

Indo-International Schools Project
Ninash Foundation
17 Center Street
Oneonta, NY  13820
USA