ARMENE MODI, FOUNDER OF ASHTA NO KAI, TO SPEAK AT DOYLESTOWN ROTARY CLUB

The Rotary Club of Doylestown will welcome Armene Modi, founder of Ashta No Kai (Japanese for “For A Better Tomorrow”) at its meeting scheduled for August 1, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. at the Doylestown Country Club, 401 Pebble Hill Road in Doylestown. Modi will be discussing her organization’s work to empower rural women in India by providing educational and vocational opportunities.

Modi’s work began by accident in 1996.  Originally from India, she was working as an English professor in Tokyo when she read the book May You Be The Mother of A 100 Sons and learned that 61% of women in India are illiterate. That spurred her start a project to increase women’s literacy near her hometown of Pune, India. From that project, Ashta No Kai has branched out to provide literacy, health and economic development services in 10 villages of the Pune District of Maharashtra State, located on the western coast of India. These services include: 

• Providing bicycle banks that allow teenage girls to continue their education by loaning them bicycles, so that they can travel to and from schools that are located too far away for them to walk.
• Dispensing health education services such as preventative care information, nutrition information, and providing emergency basic health kits and medications
• Helping women to become economically independent via entrepreneurial and vocational training, as well as providing access to micro-finance via self-help saving groups.

The Doylestown Rotary has helped Ashta No Kai with matching grants for various projects. “Thanks to Armene’s work with Ashta No Kai, many poor women in India have been able to get themselves out of poverty and provide better housing, healthcare, and education for their families,” said Doylestown Rotary member Bob Eichfeld. “We are happy to have Armene speak at our club and support her work with Ashta No Kai.”  To learn more about Ashta No Kai’s work visit https://sites.google.com/site/ashtanokai/home/news

The meeting is open to member and non-member business professionals and reservations are required for non-member visitors.  Those interested in visiting the Rotary Club of Doylestown should contact Jo-Anne Atwell at 267-614-2293, or by email at jepatwell@msn.com. The cost to attend is $20, which covers the price of dinner.

About the Doylestown Rotary:

The Doylestown Rotary Club is comprised of business owners and professionals living and/or working in Doylestown, PA and the surrounding communities. Founded on April 28, 1924, the Doylestown Rotary was organized with a chartering membership of 20.

The Rotary Club of Doylestown sponsors business card exchanges, Four-Way Test Awards, Scholarship Awards, as well as events to raise funds for other organizations in need. Over the years, Rotary Club of Doylestown has supported Doylestown Hospital, the Delaware Valley College Horse Show, community athletic fields, highway landscape improvements, and organizations such as the March of Dimes, Twilight Wish Foundation, Village Improvement Association, the SPCA, and the Bucks County Historical Society.

Since 1965, the club has hosted dozens of foreign exchange students and sent as many local students abroad as part of their Student Exchange Program. The Rotary Club of Doylestown continues to host and send abroad exchange students. It also sponsors the Central Bucks East Interact Club, provides college scholarships to graduating seniors at all three Central Bucks High Schools, sponsors a regional weekend leadership camp for six Central Bucks High School students, and supports an annual essay and speech contest for local high school students. 

On an international level, the Rotary Club of Doylestown provides financial support to Rotary International polio prevention programs, the Shelter Box program, and to programs that assist Maasai villages in Kenya, where monies raised have helped fund the drilling of five water wells. The final well project was completed and fully functional in June 2011.

Throughout the years, the Rotary Club of Doylestown and its members have been leaders in the community and have practiced "Service Above Self". For moreinformation about The Rotary Club of Doylestown visit http://doylestownrotary.org. To  learn more about Rotary International visit www.rotary.org.