Meet Harish Kotecha, Founder of Hindu Charities for America

Harish Kotecha was born in Uganda, studied Electrical engineering in UK and settled in the U.S. when Dictator Idi Amin ousted most of the foreigners out of Uganda.  He retired early from IBM where he worked in hardware development, contributing in the areas of semiconductor, system board, software and later in the area of quality improvement. He has almost two dozen US patents.  Kotecha is a co-founder of an instant yogurt product, Yokit.  Since retirement, Harish spends most of his time in volunteer work – he actively volunteers in religious, civic, cultural, service, and social organizations in the Austin area Indian community holding leadership or Advisory positions.  Harish Kotecha has been recognized by the 2014 President’s Volunteer Service Award for addressing the most pressing needs in the community and country.

Since 2009, Harish has been helping with the resettlement of Bhutanese refugees in Austin working across resettlement agencies, temples, and other organizations that are assisting in the resettlement process. He is on the Advisory Board of Refugee Services of Texas and is on the panel of the Refugee Round Table. In recognition of his services, Harish was awarded 2009 Samaj Seva(community service) by the India Community Center.

Harish founded Hindu Charities for America (HC4A), a non-denominational charity, with the vision of Indians helping with Education of Homeless Children in the U.S.. Since 2010, HC4A successfully donated school supplies to most school districts in Austin area as a joint project with Greater Austin Area Jewish Federation. Since 2013, Jewish and Indian communities have joined hands and raised funds together with a fundraiser – Bollywood Meets Borscht Belt.

To help with income disparity in Austin area, an initiative to provide vocational training to economically disadvantaged children was launched in 2013. This resulted in 2014 awards of $20,000 in scholarships to Capital Idea, Manor ISD and ACC. This year $25,000 is slated to be awarded to ACC, Capital Idea, Manor, and Austin  ISDs.  Current efforts are to make HC4A a mainstream charity with involvement of all communities. Efforts are underway to establish an Executive Board, each Board member contributing annually $2,500 toward scholarships.

Recently the third annual ‘Bollywood Meets Borscht Belt’ fundraising event, organized by Hindu Charities for America and the Jewish Federation of Greater Austin, brought together the Indian and Jewish communities once again to help over a thousand homeless children with school supplies for the upcoming school year in Austin, Del Valle and Manor. The event was covered in an article in the India-West, the largest and most prestigious among weekly Indian newspapers on the West Coast of U.S. established in 1975.

Harish is married to Shobhna, has a daughter Sonia who is activist and works at CASA, and son Savan who is a very successful international songwriter to over songs 100M sold.  Harish and his wife Shobhna often act as a resource to Indian residents who are newly settled in Austin. They have also helped overseas University of Texas Austin students by providing accommodations, transportation and settle in the area. Harish helps to do outreach for many organizations as well as those seeking to make connections with temples and cultural organizations.