Assessing Our Scholarship and Micro-Enterprise Grant Programs in South India
From January 18 to 31 executive director Martha Hopewell traveled to India with a special mission: to assess the impact of Save One Life's first scholarships and micro-enterprise grants. These were awarded to
m
e
mbers of seven India program partner chapters in the states of Maharashtra, Tamil N
adu, Kerala and Karnataka starting in 2012.
With Usha Parthasarathy, Save One Life's India program coordinator, Martha personally interviewed 30 scholarship awardees and visited ten micro-enterprise grant recipients. It became clear with each visit that these
projects have a positive impact, bringing opportunity where otherwise there would be none.
The first scholarship interview was 24-year-old Nilesh Suryavanshi from Mumbai. Nilesh lost his older brother, Mahesh, in 2010 from illness due to a contaminated blood transfusion. Save One Life helped Nilesh pay for two out of a three-year master's degree in computer application.
After graduating in September 2014, Nilesh entered a six-month internship and immediately found employment in a small start up company. With his salary of $265 per month, Nilesh is paying the mortgage on a new home for his retired parents and supporting the family's living expenses.
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Executive director Martha Hopewell and India program coordinator Usha Parthasarathy with scholarship recipient Azeez Thoufeeq |
Another touching story is Azeez Thoufeeq from Kerala. He was placed in an orphanage by his mother at the age of five because, as a housemaid, she felt she couldn't properly care for him. Azeez described the loneliness of living in an orphanage, as well as the difficulty of bleeds as he was expected to perform physically challenging chores.
Azeez has completed his training to be a nurse and is about to receive his degree. Save One Life helped pay for the third of a three-year program and the expenses of an internship. When asked why he chose nursing, Azeez responded,"I spent so much of my childhood in the hospital, it feels like a second home. I can bring that experience to my work."
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Interviewing Mustaffa, who received a scholarship through Save One Life's sub-grant from Novo Nordisk Haemophilia Foundation |
Save One Life was a sub-grantee of a three-year grant awarded to the University of Manipal by the Novo Nordisk Haemophilia Foundation to improve hemophilia care in the state of Karnataka. Save One Life's project addressed the empowerment of people with hemophilia through educational scholarships. Twenty students received support to pursue bachelor's and master's degrees. Martha and Usha attended the closing ceremony for IDEEA and distributed final scholarships to six students.
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Current and former scholarship recipients of the IDEEA project,
of which Save One Life was a sub-grantee
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Martha and Usha also journeyed into crowded city neighborhoods and country hamlets to visit ten micro-enterprise grant recipients.
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Micro-enterprise grant recipient 23-year-old Tarun Ledwani
in his fabric shop
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Grants have been used to support a number of activities--including tailoring and sewing, running small kiosks, vegetable vending and milk production.
Tarun Ledwani and his younger hemophilic brother, Haresh, lost their mother tragically in 2010. In March 2015 Tarun received a $1,000 grant to establish his own fabric shop. Less than a year later Tarun has successfully teamed up with a partner (who doesn't have hemophilia) to sell fabric ensembles for the popular women's outfit called "salwar kameez." A wholesale distributor, Tarun travels to local retail shops to sell his wares. Before launching his business, Tarun earned about $66 per month as a fabric shop attendant. Today, he earns double that amount, which helps him care for his grandmother and Haresh, who often assists in the shop.
Six of the grantees visited were mothers in Tamil Nadu who purchased cows. In only one case was there a problem, when a cow and her calf died from the torrential rains and flooding that hit areas of Tamil Nadu in December. For the others, their cows' milk is not only producing valuable revenue, but also helping to improve nutrition for the family.
One mother, Ganga, a farm laborer earning about $75 a month, is proving to be an astute businesswoman. The cow she purchased in 2014 has already had a calf, and is pregnant again. She plans to inseminate the calf in a year, so that both animals will produce milk. Ganga has calculated that this will generate about $80 in additional monthly revenue for the family. And, she added, "I consider my calves as an investment worth about $100 each!" No wonder her 15-year-old hemophilic son, Nimalraj, is a whiz at math! He wants to be an aeronautical engineer!
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India program coordinator Usha Parthasarathy interviewing Vasantha,
who purchased a cow and two goats with her $800 grant
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