Dear Donors, Now it is 5:07AM on 5/17/09. I did not sleep the whole night to complete several tasks as the function date (5/30/2009) is fast approaching. Please mark We have 37 regular scholarships and 62 scavenging children scholarships. It has been decided to distribute the scholarships in the following way. 47 scholarships will be given the way we do every year. They are: Regular scholarships: 37 (will be given in AP students studying in Govt and social welfare school and applied thru advertisement) Safai Karamchari Andolan (Scavenging Children Scholarships), AP: 10 Among the rest, at least 50 will be distributed under “Educational Adoption” project. I am very hopefully anticipating that each one of you supports our project in the years to come without a break. So, I am going with a gut feeling that we will be able to raise donations to support these 50 kids atleast till 10th grade. I am interested in this project due to the following 2 main reasons:
Some donors expressed their interest in supporting the same child for a prolonged period of time rather than supporting a different child every year thru scholarships. This way a donor will have a satisfaction of supporting a single child and see him or her grow in education till he/she reaches upto 10th grade. I too have this project in mind for so long and feel that the impact on child’s life is possible only by supporting it for a prolonged period of time and by giving the best education available. It is also a barometer for our efforts . So, after giving it a thorough thought and discussing it with several other donors, I decided to go with this project. Though it costs me more in terms of effort, time, and coordination, I feel it is the right thing to do. In this context, I spoke to several social workers over phone and decided to take the following individuals to achieve the goals in our mind. Sis. Sigaya Mary, Principal, Chilakaluri pet, 10 students belong to ST community and children of rikshaw pullers and laborers. Mr Vidya Bhushan Rawat, (Works among scavengers), Uattar Pradesh, 10 students Mr Jagan, Sakya Hostel (Tsunami orphaned children), Tamilnadu, 10 students Mr Isreal, (Works among Scavengers), Tamilnadu, 10 students To be deided: 12. I have not yet decided on another social worker doing yeomen service to the economically backward students. Total : 52 This is how it works: Our coordinators identify an English medium school, negotiate the fee, and admit kids in it. For now, I will allot a child to each donor. In future, all children in need will be uploaded to website and the donor can choose one or more children from it. Once chosen, the donor will become the god-parent to the child. We will provide all details of the child and give full freedom to interact with him/she, if desired. Sponsorship for a child for one year is a minimum of Rs. 5,000. The donated money is used for school fee, books, uniform etc Coordinators will upload or send me the reports of these kids on regular basis. I will post them on website so that the donor can see the progress of his/her kid. Hope you all will support this initiative as well. With infinite gratitudeBenjamin P Kaila ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ An educated man without character and humility was more dangerous than a beast. If his education was detrimental to the welfare of poor, he was a curse to society. -Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar Please visit www.friendsforeducation.org or www.ambedkarscholarship.org
