IASF collaborated with Odisha.ml (an organization promoting Machine Learning) and OSA (Odisha Society of Americas) in organizing a Hackathon in June 2022 at the annual convention in Sacramento. The goal was to promote students in grade 8 through 12 from the Odia community across the world to participate and demonstrate their understanding and entrepreneurial talent.

There were 4 broad categories:

  1. Agriculture and Climate Change
  2. Sanitation and Public Health
  3. Education
  4. Bringing the Odia community together

A total of 20 teams registered for the hackathon of which 4 were from Odisha. The hackathon was done remotely over a period of 4 weeks by the students at home. Students provided a 5 minutes video along with other code or presentation for the evaluation.

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OSA Convention provided a perfect opportunity for the youth to get involved. IASF formally launched the IASF-Youth wing (A new membership category that included school and college going kids interested in making a difference aligned with IASF mission). Young people have the ideas, the creativity and great energy to shape a better world and take IASF to new heights. They are taking the charge. In this segment several IASF youth members interviewing some of the permanent and board members to hear their thoughts.

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On April 1, 2021, IASF launched a new initiative called IASF Shikhya, in partnership with Aveti Learning. The goal of this initiative is to provide world class, digital learning to underprivileged students in grades 1-10 in Odia-medium schools all over Odisha. Each government-run, Odia-medium school has many students from poor families who can’t afford after-school tuition, which is essential in proper learning of the subject matters taught in classrooms.

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, all our activities/projects came to a standstill. But when the going gets tough, our volunteers (sevaks) increase their enthusiasm to serve the community in whatever way they can. Continuing with our mission to support education development, IASF decided to launch a global hackathon to encourage students and young entrepreneurs to come up with ideas/projects to serve the world during a difficult time.  IASF, in partnership with HackVenture, hosted a week-long online startup hackathon for high school and college students all over the world from July 24-31, 2020. HackVenture was led by Satwik Panigrahi, who is also one of IASF’s youth members. The hackathon was virtual.  More than 100 students from 10 different countries joined this event and more than 30 teams submitted their ideas/projects. The goal of this event was to encourage students to collaborate in a virtual setting and invited industry luminaries to inspire…

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Family Supportive Housing (FSH) is an organization that has been helping homeless single and two-parent families with children remain together while addressing their needs for food, shelter, employment, and education, for thirty years now. Their mission is to help families avoid the trap and cycle of homelessness by helping them get on their feet immediately after a tragic event such as job loss, home loss, etc. Their shelters accommodate up to 35 families at a time for up to 90 days and close to 60% of their residents are children under the age of eighteen. In light of COVID-19, IASF reached out to its local community to partner with Family Supportive Housing (FSH) in East Side San Jose. Struggling to meet demand during lockdown and quarantine restrictions, IASF fundraised to donate essential items such as groceries and cutleries for families and learning tools for kids.  With more than half of…

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Change the world by helping “One Child at a Time” is an initiative by the World Family Foundation (WFF). WFF is a non-profit organization based in Ojai, California, USA. They are committed to help the poorest of the poor children to break the barrier of poverty by providing quality education. WFF has built Prashanti International School in Puri, Odisha, India.

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Our hope is to create a permanent home for 50 orphans that WrkSpot foundation adopted in 2018. These orphans are currently staying with a charity organization called Jeevan Jyoti. Their current accommodation (especially after cyclone FANI) is not meeting government audit standards and hence the need for this project to shift the adopted orphans to a more permanent home.

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All your donations are tax deductible.

IASF is working with WRKSPOT Foundation to help rebuild the home to 53 needy kids. All of these kids are displaced and need immediate financial help to rebuild the infrastructure that was destroyed in Cyclone FANI. WRKSPOT Foundation was established in 2018. It’s first project is to change the lives of 53 kids in the city of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. WRKSPOT’s goal is to help children learn to learn to dream and achieve. They have a 3-step formula to achieve our goal – feed healthy food, provide safe environment, create awareness in children the importance of mental and physical fitness at an early age. Please visit their website http://www.WRKSPOT.FOUNDATION for details. Thank you for all your generous support – we are no more accepting donations for this cause.    

Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Fani ravaged the coastal Odisha on May 3, 2019, destroying homes, buildings, uprooting millions of trees, damaging electrical & communication infrastructure. Though due to the government’s planning and foresight the loss of human lives was minimal, the aftermath is unbearable to millions of people affected. Your contribution, no matter how small or big is going to help the needy. Thank you for all your generous support – we are no more accepting donations for this cause.

IASF (was called “Oriya Sevaks” then) was born after the 1999 Super Cyclone in Orissa that claimed 10,000 lives and caused immense destruction across the state. This cyclone has been listed as the strongest recorded tropical cyclone in the North Indian Ocean and among the most destructive in the region (Info).

IASF volunteers worked passionately to raise funds and executed 12 community projects ranging from distributing medicines, blankets to building shelter homes, repairing schools etc for sustainability of affected people in long term.

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The goal of the Vision 20/20 Program is to provide eye exams and glasses to needy students who otherwise fall behind in schools because of their vision problem.

The goal of the Raise a Reader program is to encourage elementary school students to read books outside of their core curriculum. Students with good reading habits tend to do well in higher grades. We work directly with the school principals to provide almirah and books for this program.

204 High School students were sitting on the floor. 51 pairs of desks/benches were supplied. Most now sit on supplied 51 desk/chair pairs. IASF undertook this project for a cost of $2450 and was coordinated by Prasanna Samantray.

IASF worked towards raising funds for the victims in Haiti’s devastaing earthquake and donated $5000 through Red Cross, San Jose, CA.

IASH undertook this project to improve the sanitation project at Athmallic in Odisha.

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