The area was experiencing one of its frequent blackouts, so the road was darker than usual. Inside the van was Lalit Deshmukh, a 35-year-old software developer and Maharashtra native who now lives and works in Boise.

"Suddenly, several women appeared in our headlights," recalled Deshmukh. "Next to me, Dr. Kulkarni called out in Hindi, ‘It's me. It's me.' The women stopped running."

The women, prostitutes, had assumed Deshmukh and Kulkarni were the police, there to abuse them.

Instead, Deshmukh was there to make sure $13,000 donated from pockets in Boise would be spent the right way.Girish Kulkarni is founder of Snehalaya, a nonprofit group that runs several rehabilitation centers in Maharashtra. The centers provide refuge, education and medical care for sex workers and their children.

Deshmukh's last visit was in spring 2005. But just this month, a new shelter, paid for with money from Boise, opened in Shrirampur's red light district.

Volunteer backing

Deshmukh is a volunteer with AID-Boise, the local branch of the international charitable group, Association for India's Development.

Only about 1 percent of Idaho's charitable dollars from corporations and foundations go to international and foreign projects, according to Philanthropy Northwest's most recent report.

But the Treasure Valley is home to people like Deshmukh. He's a married father of two young children who counts photography and environmental issues among his passions. His present life is in Idaho, but his ties to India and his feelings of responsibility to his native country remain strong.

AID-Boise has around 25 active members, mostly Indians in their 20s and 30s who give money and raise money throughout the year for humanitarian projects in India.

Some of AID-Boise's members come to charitable giving through family tradition, like Kaveri Jain, 26, a Micron photo engineer.

Her history of volunteer work before joining AID-Boise — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the American Society for the Prevention and Cruelty to Animals — focused on animal welfare.

During her childhood in the state of Uttar Pradesh, her family regularly took in all manner of creatures in need, from mice, to sparrows, to dogs, to parrots — even a stray calf.

"Cows provide families with milk, and that is why many families still have them," Jain said. "But the male babies born to these cows cannot be used in the same way, so they are just let out on the streets to fend on their own."

When Jain's parents visit Boise, they travel alone. Someone always has to stay in Uttar Pradesh to take care of the animals.

Deshmukh's interest in charitable activities was inspired by philanthropic legend Baba Amte, founder of India's Leprosy Service Society, who happens to be from Warora, Deshmukh's hometown.

Baba Amte, now an old man, grew up in luxury. He had a lucrative law practice, socialized with Hollywood movie stars and drove a sports car upholstered in panther fur.

A chance encounter with a man dying of leprosy on the street in 1949 changed Baba Amte's course. He left his law practice and opened leprosy clinics.

He built a refuge outside Warora where he worked and farmed beside leprosy patients to teach them self-sufficiency.

His good works were a constant backdrop in Warora.

For Narayan Vaidyanathan, 29, a Micron process coordinator, AID-Boise is his first experience with volunteering.

Living and working in Idaho allows time for reflection and giving to others in a way that living and studying in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, his home, did not.

"Every morning you have to prove yourself in India. There's mental pressure, competition to study. You compete for anything and everything," Vaidyanathan said.

Even middle-class Indians have to concern themselves with basic challenges, like finding clean drinking water, he added.

Accessing aid

AID-Boise volunteers research the Indian nonprofits that ask for aid and visit sites before making grants.

Members of the group make additional site visits during their regular trips to India, or they send friends and relatives in their stead.

Sometimes, just reaching AID projects in the remote villages of the vast subcontinent is a feat.

Deshmukh knows volunteers who have taken an overnight train and a long bus ride, then walked several miles to reach a school or shelter.

Deshmukh's own visit to Snehalaya in 2005 was bittersweet.

The bitterness came during a stop at a brothel where an informant told Kulkarni that earlier that very day, the brothel owner had sold two girls to another brothel for 70,000 rupees, or around $1,600.

The sweetness came from a meeting with five little girls at a rehabilitation center built by Snehalaya.

The girls, children of sex workers, were playing in a fountain. They splashed in the water, urging Deshmukh to take their picture.

"If this organization were not here, these children would be prostitutes themselves, servicing 40 customers a night," said Deshmukh.

Because Snehalaya is there, the girls attend school.

One passed a rigorous exam to become a Maharashtra State talent search scholar, a high honor that guarantees scholarships and a clear path away from the brothel.

"This is where AID money is going," said Deshmukh. "This is where life is building."

Anna Webb: 377-6431