USU grad stages fundraiser for schools in India

As a girl growing up in India’s poorest state, Bushra Zaman regularly saw children with no opportunity to attend school, a situation that consigned them to a life of grinding poverty.
Zaman vowed to do something, and today the recent Utah State University civil engineering graduate is fulfilling that dream.
As co-founder and India Project Director for Effect International, she has helped establish a small four-room school in Sasaram, Bihar, near where she grew up. Over the next five years, she hopes to build 20 more schools in India and Nepal.
It’s a lofty goal, Zaman acknowledged, but she and the four other Aggies who started Effect International this spring say they have already seen an unexpected outpouring of support.
A recent book drive for Bihar collected 30,000 volumes from USU students and local libraries and elementary schools; in addition, a donor in central India has provided 107,000 square feet of land for the organization to start a second school.
“We’ve found that if you reach out, people are really helpful,” said Rachael Senft, assistant director and co-founder.
On Friday, the group held a small concert fundraiser at the Citrus and Sage coffee shop, mainly to get their name out among the community. Efforts will continue in the fall with a focus on collecting money for school supplies, uniforms, furniture and teacher salaries. One-hundred percent of the tax-deductible donations go to help the children, many of whom are orphans, according to Udita Sanga, the organization’s secretary, who grew up in a state adjacent to Bihar.
Sanga stressed that small gifts can change lives, relating a story of meeting a boy who had never been taught to count. With her help, he was soon doing calculations in his head.
“We are trying to give them the skills they need,” Sanga said, explaining that the problems can seem overwhelming.
Roughly the size of Illinois, Bihar is home to nearly 83 million people, most of whom live on less than $1 a day.
For Senft, a December visit to the area was eye-opening, bringing home issues she’d learned about in social work classes at USU.
“It’s a lot more powerful to be there than to read about it in a book,” said Senft. “There has always been that good, strong community ethic of ‘help your neighbors,’ but as time goes on it is increasingly important to help our neighbors around the world.”
For more information on the organization or to get involved, go to www.effectinternational.org.