Jashu Shah was from India and his first involvement with IVU was way back in 1957. Over the following years he held many important offices and organised major events for IVU, and in 1999 he founded and became the first President of the Asian Vegetarian Union. Sadly Jashu passed away in 2008. The 4th Asian Veg Congress, Batam, Indonesia, 2009, decided to honour him by creating this fund in his name.

This will to be a long term fund with the general objective of 'Promoting Vegetarianism in Asia'. Below is just our first objective, others will follow:

IVU's most important resource is our people. We do well in finding volunteers from all over Asia, and we can do most of our work on the internet - but there is no substitute for occasional face-to-face meetings. At present the best way for our hard-working volunteers to meet is at the various congresses, but many of them do not have the funds for travel and registration costs, so we need to help them.

In the near future in Asia we have World and Regional Veg Congresses in Indonesia, China, India, and Dubai.

We want to give our dedicated Asian volunteers more opportunities to meet each other, share experiences, agree strategies, and learn from eminent speakers about animals, health and the environment. Then they can return home inspired and motivated to continue their local work and their discussions on the internet.

Please donate what you can to help in this important work.

Possible future projects for the Fund:

• Jashu Shah Memorial Lecture by an influential personality (annual) in a major city.
• Jashu Shah Memorial Award to most enterprising veg organisation/ individual promoting veg*ism.
• Jashu Shah memorial scholarships for veg students.
• Holding/supporting annual national and regional veg conferences in Asia.
• Sponsoring promising (young) individual veg activists at the international veg conferences.
• Support setting up of local veg groups by offering financial support.
• Starting and running IVU India office with paid staff to promote veg*ism and to raise funds for veg*ism.
• Supporting Asian Vegetarian Union's office and website operation.
• Starting and running a Vegetarian Newsletter/magazine (monthly or quarterly).
  
• Compiling Veg Business Directory.
• Running Veg Employment and Veg Marriage websites.