Class act: TI India Foundation gives 100 children a chance for an education
TI India Foundation volunteers raised enough money to send 100 children to school this year. Pictured are some of the scholarship recipients and TIIF volunteers. Volunteers are Aditya Rawal (back row), Priya Ranjan Gupta, Sylvia Subbaiah, and Rittu Sachdev (third row from left) and Diganta Baishya and Ramkrishna Saha (front row). |
TI, its foundations and its employees have a commitment to improving education that is shared in every region of the world.
Recently, the TI India Foundation (TIIF) raised enough money from TI employees
to send 100 underprivileged children from Bangalore to school this year – five
times as many as were financed last year through the TIIF's Early Birds
scholarship program.
Under its child education program, the TIIF sponsors seven balwadis, or preschool centers, run in underprivileged areas of Bangalore.
Schooled in success
The foundation's goal was to raise enough money to send 50 children to school, but through employees' generosity, volunteers raised $15,000 – enough to finance the educations of twice as many children. In 2006, the first year of the scholarship program, the TIIF sponsored five children.
India has a universal education policy that is not always enforced in the vast and diverse country. Parents can send their children to public schools, but in many cases, there is no campus near their home. In addition, many parents did not attend school and do not see the merit in educating their children, especially their daughters.
Need is great
Many parents' incomes are not sufficient to support their family, let alone education. The TIIF scholarship money pays for almost all of the recipients' school costs, but even the poorest parents are required to pay part of the fees. That way, parents have a stake in their child's education and are more likely to ensure that their children attend school, once enrolled.
Now that the money has been raised and the scholarship
recipients identified, volunteers will chart the
children's progress
and attendance and encourage the parents to send
them to school.
The TI India Foundation
The TIIF was born five years ago as a way to coordinate company- and employee-supported charitable work in India, particularly in the areas of education and the environment. The foundation has 140 volunteers, with a core team that plans and coordinates events.
Programs include financial and volunteer support for a school for the blind, a home for the elderly, preschools, blood donation camps, and environmental projects such as tree planting.
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