Dear ELSAs,

As we wind down what has been an eventful 2021, what with the COVID 2 and Omicron and other things, we wanted to take this opportunity to reach out with a very short ELSA Post - some information and some asks.

The previous EC had done a fantastic job negotiating a Healthcare package with Fortis at a special discount for ELSA members and their families.

Some members were encountering trouble accessing this discount; and we are reiterating what needs to be done.

• Familiarize yourself with the offer that is described on the website
• Please keep your Alum ID card ready
• Please visit the hospital for an appointment, they need to see you, and the alumna ID card, and explain processes in person, and will not agree to an on-phone appointment
• If you run into any problem, please email us at ec@lsralumna.org/ WA on the Health WA group, and Shivani Sharma will reach out to you.

As we go forward, we believe that our work will be most representative if we know what you all would like to see the Association doing. To gather these ideas, we have created a short Survey.

For privacy reasons, some of the fields are optional. We would be grateful if you could give the questions a think and revert to us with the completed form by the 5th of January, 2022.

Having trouble getting your 80G Receipt for a donation you made to ELSA? Finding it difficult to actually navigate how to make a donation to ELSA? We hear you, and are working on creating a seamless and relatively easy way for anyone to not just donate but also get their receipts quickly, with an 80G tax exemption incorporated on the receipt, without need for follow-up. We hope to be able to roll this out soon.

Remember to give your name, email id, phone number and PAN number for all donations! (Also, if you do not wish to share PAN details, an 80G cannot be issued)

As of now, ELSA an accept donations only from Indian citizens.

The most energizing and inspiring part of being an ELSA is the plethora of great work that we are privy to! We take great pleasure in sharing two such stories this month.

Priti David – Journalist with PARI (People’s Archive of Rural India) writes with deep empathy and incredible skill. It is – in no small measure – due to stories like the ones she researches and writes, that PARI won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award in the Environment, Science and Tech category.

Read this eye-opening story she wrote!

Many of you may know Swapaksh, founded by Ajanta Purkayastha. In her words, ‘A teacher by profession but life changed after I moved to Mumbai. Living in a high end apartment made me extremely uncomfortable when I would look out of the window and see the sprawling slums. Increasingly felt the need to step out of the ivory tower to work in the slums. In 2004 started The Remedial School with 20 children. Today it has about 450 children. In 2010 started a center for women empowerment. Today many of these women have become confident economically independent individuals. My passion to change lives has resulted in starting Swapaksh.’

Look at what the kids she supports put together for Christmas!!!

In the words of another ELSA who attended this, ‘ I am very fortunate to have participated in this celebration yesterday. Children are brilliant...they put up such an amazing show- play, song, dance. they are confident in all. Talented, focused n so so loving. @Ajanta ELSA a big hug to you...

Please share happy stories/ success stories/ inspirational ideas from your Chapters with us so that we can share them onwards with all our members!

Committees
We are looking for Volunteers for the first set of Committees we have formed: Dilruba Singh will lead the College Collaboration Committee & Ashima Aggarwal the Membership one.

To volunteer for ideas, participation in these committees, please do email us at ec@lsralumna.org. Thanks!

There is a webinar series planned on some timely and thought provoking topics. If any of you would like to contribute in some way for this, or have moderating experience and would like to volunteer, please do email us at ec@lsralumna.org - Bulbul Dhar-James is managing this Committee and initiative.

And with that, here’s wishing all of you a great 2022, and a safe one!

Team ELSA