E.A.Rajesh of Asha Princeton and I (Rajaraman Krishnan of Asha Chennai) visited the Sowbagya Charitable Trust on 7th Dec. 2002. E.A.Rajesh's father-in-law Mr. Parthasarathy who has been involved with the activities of Asha Princeton and Asha Phoenix also came with us.

The visit was planned earlier since E.A.Rajesh was visiting India during the month of December. Sowbhagya Charitable Trust invited us over on the day of their Annual-day celebrations since this would then give us the opportunity to see all the concerned people (the trustees, the children, their parents, the teachers they have hired etc.) in one shot. But much to the consternment of Rajesh and I, we were also made the cheif guest and special guest for the event! A few days before the event, we received a printed invite identifying us as the cheif guest and special guest. I have to say it greatly amused our wifes!

We first went to Mrs. Jayalakshmi Rajagopal's house. Mrs. Jayalakshmi Rajagopal is the founder and president of the Sowbhagya Trust. Mrs. Sarojini Varadappan, the president of Women's Indian Association and the daughter of ex- Cheif Minister of Tamilnadu, Bhaktavatsalam was also present. She was invited to preside over the functions that evening. Sowbhagya Trust functions in conjunction with the Sowbhagya Ladies Association. The board members of the ladies association are automatic trustees of the Sowbhagya trust. The Sowbhagya Ladies Association is a member organisation of the Women's Indian Association.

We spent about 1/2 an hour talking to Mr and Mrs. Rajagopal about the Sowbagya Trust and their activities. Sowbagya Trust has been active for about 7 years. This was an offshoot of the Sowbagya ladies association. Their only activities are those directed at helping the education of qualified young boys and girls in Neelangarai (which is where they are located). They start monitoring children in the Panchayat school at Neelangarai from the 3rd standard. For 3rd and 4th standards they give prices for the top four children in the class. At the end of the fifth standard they pick the top 8 students for scholarship. They admit these students at ??? school which is a fairly good private school in that area. The fees and the costs for uniforms and books are paid by the Sowbagya Trust. Further the trust continues monitoring the students and provides tution for 9th and 10th standard students free of cost. For 11th and 12th they are admitted to ??? school.

We were very impressed by several things they were doing including,
	* Personal knowledge and mentoring of every kid that they support. The reasonably small number of children (56 this year) enables them to do this. They possess good knowledge of the needs of the children. They have the parents also involved and seem to know even every parent and their situation.
	* Excellent record keeping. They had every exam report of every student for all these years they have operated. They had every disbursement recorded. They had photos of these children right from the first year they joined this program.
	* They started monitoring the kids early (by third standard), worked with the Panchayat school, paid attention to the needs of the children and even when they graduated from ITI or 12th, they continued to pay attention to their needs. Thus there was no ad-hocism in their activities. They identified the children and stuck with them till they become functional adults earning their own livelihood.

Their financials raised some concern. In the first couple of years of operation they had decided to raise a trust fund to fund this program. They estimated that a trust fund of 3 or 4 Lakhs would be needed in order to fund 4 students a year as they had been doing (now they fund 8 students a year). When the interest rates were high and fees lower, they were able to manage. But then by 1999 they stopped being able to fund the students on their own. They approached Asha. Since then Asha has been funding their entire program. They have since then not raised any further funds. Asha funding started at around $3000 a year and now with the increase in the number of students (to 8 a year) and increase in the fees, the amount has gone up to about $9000 a year this year (not including the college portion). So really their trust fund is completely inadequate to meet this kind of a need. They do not seem to be making any effort to raise local funds either.

Anyway coming to the main reason for this visit, the first batch of their students are graduating from the 12th and ITI this year. They need to be given college education before they can stand on their own two feet. Even though Asha Silicon Valley has already lined up the funding for this, they would like Asha Chennai to administer it since Mrs. Rajagopal will be unable to be personally involved in managing this. The funding needs for the 4 students who would be going to college this year would be $3000. Note that with more students coming to college going age the funding requirements for this would go to up to 8 times this amount (i.e. 8 each year for 3 or 4 years). Asha Silicon Valley should be fully aware of this commitment. Dropping somewhere along the way would be very unproductive.

Anyway we all went to the Panchayat school where this function was held. It needs to be mentioned that the Sowbagya Trust has also helped the Panchayat school in other ways. They have helped it to expand to offer upto 8th standard. They have also helped the school in other ways. I am not very clear on that front.

All the children funded by the trust, their parents, the tuition teachers, the members of the ladies association etc. were all assembled there. Predictably it was awkward for me and Rajesh to sit in the stage area as the guests of honour. With the series of speeches the function got underway. Rajesh and I some how delivered ours with a mixture of bad Tamil and English. We also saw some entertainment programs organised by the children. At the end of this we met all the students and their parents and talked to them personally for some time. In particular we met all the four students who would be going to college by the end of this year including Anbumani who is already receiving scholarship for going to college.

We once again felt there were lots of positives,
	* The kids and their parents clearly felt Sowbagya trust and Asha have really changed their lives. The effect of a program like this on the entire family was clear. Now the parents were enthused to educate even their other children who did not receive the scholarships.
	* There were almost an equal number of girls as boys.
	* The older children seem to realise the responsibility that comes with the benefit they have received these last several years. They were keen on returning the favour to others less fortunate.

On the whole both Rajesh and I felt that we should move forward with the project to pay for the college education of these children. We both differed for the existing SV chapter view in one respect. We felt that the money should be given as an interest free loan and not as a pure scholarship. In a nation where most people do not even receive primary education, college education is unfortunately a luxury. Giving this amount as a loan would be better for that reason. Additionally this would control the growth in the cost of this project. It would help us stabilize at something less that $24000 a year. Further this would also instill a sense of fiscal responsibility in the children. For smaller amounts we see the amount being given by Asha and the students can pay back the loan amount at a pace comfortable for them. For larger amounts Asha would sign as a guarantor with a bank to obtain the loan for the student. Asha would meet the interest component of the loan for a certain number of years.

There were a few philosophical issues which came up in my mind when I looked at this project. Please do not view these as concrete objections for this project. These are broader issues to think about in building up a longer term direction for Asha.

1. However we cut the pie we are going to benefit some people and not others. This project has chosen to help "children", "best children in class 5", "children from Neelangarai", "children going to the Panchayat school and therefore likely to be quite poor" ... Some of these boundaries would be OK with most of us (like the first and the fourth). But some of the other of these restrictions are questionable. Should we restrict good primary education to the brightest/best students. If you think about it there is as good a case to be made for giving the best education to the stupidest/weakest student! Primary education ought to be universal and should not be bestowed just on the bright students. But then with limited funds what do you do?

2. In the broad perspective, is taking the students and putting them in a private school the best solution. Wouldnt it be better to instead say spend the money on bringing up the Panchayat school to the same level as the private school? But once again the money required to do that may be well beyond Asha's reach.

Rajaram

ps. We also had a very fruitful discussion with Mrs. Sarojini Varadappan. It seems like there may be good opportunities for Asha to work with Women's Indian Association which has a much larger reach and volunteer base in India than Asha. But I am not going into that in this mail.