Hallelujah

Great news - after 10 months of waiting, Uddami is now a full-fledged 501c3 nonprofit in the U.S. on our own. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Katherine Dyer, the IRS has granted us this all-important status.

Until now Uddami in the U.S. and Uddami in India have been synonymous with our free computer school in Kolkata. During the 501c3 process we realized that Uddami in the U.S. could have a wider focus. The school, Uddami Computer Training Centre (UCTC), will always be our flagship project, and for the next year we will concentrate only on UCTC.

In the future we plan to start and support other small projects that provide education or vocational training. We are convinced that small projects with clear goals have the ability to affect lives in a profound way.

Look at Rabia Khatoon - 12 years ago she was living on the streets with her family.

Today Rabia is a trained computer teacher who was recently approached to teach at another centre. She lives in a hostel for working women like herself, takes care of her mother who used to beg on the streets of Kolkata, and she is studying to pass her Class XII (roughly equivalent to our high school diploma). Thierry Darnaudet's residential home got Rabia off the streets and the training she received at UCTC will keep her from ever going back to the streets.

What's new

UCTC has a new offshoot - Uddami Software Services or USS. USS was recently started by our technical advisor, Bryan Forst it's a for-profit business that hires UCTC graduates to do outsource work. They are paid a decent wage and 25% of the profits will be donated to UCTC. This work came from Sam Phelps and Technium Software. We would like to acknowledge them for giving our students a chance to prove themselves. Thanks!

Our first client is very impressed and happy with the work USS has done. If this work continues and is successful, USS will be able to fully support the operating costs of UCTC. Self-sufficiency is becoming a reality.

Where do we go from here...

A second computer training centre (we have a waiting list of more than 50 students), vocational training for the deaf, study centres in slums... there's no end to what we could accomplish - with your help!
Hopefully you're now so inspired you'll to go directly to our "how you can help" page on our website. Be sure to take a look around because there are quite a few changes both in design and content.

Grants

Shadhika Foundation has granted us $5000 - this is the third year in a row. We appreciate Shadhika's support and Urge you to take a look at their website to see the other wonderful projects that they partner with.

Marc Gold and 100 Friends have also supported us again this year by giving funds that we are mainly using for books for our library. We are trying to build up our Bengali book section as these books seem to be very popular with our students.

Marc also came to know that one of our students, Sanchita Gharami, was having difficulty with funds for her last year of school and he generously offered to help her out.

Thanks to all of our donors, we really appreciate the help that all of you give us year after year!

Season's Greetings

As we begin the season of giving we ask you to include us on your gift-giving list. Your gift to Uddami is a tangible way to change the lives of young people in the best possible way - by giving them hope for a better life.

Best wishes for the season to you and yours,
The Uddami Team

Alison Saracena
President of Uddami and Director of UCTC

Bryan Forst
Technical Advisor of UCTC

Nivedita Pal
Assistant Director of UCTC

Katherine Dyer
Treasurer of Uddami

Julia Dunatov
Secretary of Uddami