SPAITF, Activity
HQ REPORT
During 2014-2015
• 21 individual applications were
approved grants, ranging from
£50 to £600
• 29 applications rejected, including
one we received for medical
assistance
• Grant approved from the interest
earned from Nairobi ‘endowment
funds’ - £3,150
President
• Grant approved from SPA (UK)
general education
fund - £350an d
Namaste
Jai Branch,
sh ree
Krish na
• Wellingborough
who
supports one student per year £250
• Luton Family – started this year to
fund one student per year - £250
• Leicester Branch – first year
student support - £500
• Birmingham Branch - donati on to
general education fund - £300
• Walsall Branch – who supports
one student per year - £300
In total the SPAITF distributed
£4,500. This amount is well over the
original budget, but has been made
possible with the donations from our
branches and a family from Luton.
We would like to take this
opportunity to formally thank our
partners in India, esspecially Navsari
Ashram, Valsad, Billimora, Bardoli
Samaj, etc who help make this
programme possible by supporting
individual applicants complete the
application form in English and
they also act as our communication
channels.
This year the committee discussed
how we can make this grant process
more user-friendly and easier for
people to apply for education
support. With this in mind the
committee undertook a review
of a number of documents and
decided to explore the use of IT.
With the assistance from Eleshbhai
Mistry (London) and Ashokbhai
Mistry (Luton) we reviewed the
application form and with the
agreement of the committee we
tested the ‘on-line’ application. This
process would allow us to manage
this growing grant programme
much better and helps to cut down
on other unnecessary costs. But
more importantly we can upload
all the necessary information for
potential applicants. The next step
is to have the grant application
process translated into Gujarati. For
more information please visit www.
prajapati.org.uk
Why are we changing the process?
Firstly, we want to move into 21st
century and secondly, going on-line
will help us to monitor and evaluate
our grants and distribution of the
funds more effectively, but most
importantly of all, our community
in India can apply directly if they so
wish without having to travel long
distances to one of the approved
Samaj locations. The challenge for
us is to publish this development in
India.
Fund
Raising
This year we were delighted that
SPA (UK) Executives designated
SPA UK/ITF as the charity of
the year for fund raising. 30th
November 2014 was declared
SPA (UK) National Fund Raising
Day, and additionally two regional
fund raising events were held in
March 2015. We are so proud that
collectively all branches raised
over £7,000.00 which would be
split 50/50 between SPA (UK)
and ITF. On behalf of SPAITF we
would like to extend our gratitude
and heartfelt appreciation to all the
branches and their volunteers and
most importantly of all “a big thank
you” to our community members
who took part to raise much needed
funds for our charity. We sincerely
hope that our members will
continue with their generosity and
support in the future.
The committee has discussed
further fund raising ideas and there
have been some good suggestions,
such as:
• Each branch to donate a set
amount of funds annually
(depending on the size of the
branch).
• Each branch to sponsor a young
person or community project.
• Each branch to donate to SPAITF
a % of funds they raise for local
charity or surplus from one of
their local events.
• To consider marketing /
approaching our pensioners, who
are in a position to donate their
“winter fuel allowance” to SPAITF.
These are just some of the
suggestions from the committee
members. If you have ideas for
fund raising please do get in touch
with us, as we need all the help we
can get.
As the secretary of SPAITF, my
vision is a little different, for
example we have many thousands
of Prajapati members who are in
high level, professional positions
or in business and we need to find
ways to engage with them to talk
about the SPAITF programme. If
we can secure just £10 per month
contribution from 75% of working
members of our community, we can
help a lot more of our community in
India and in England. Education was
the vision of our forefathers, and
they gave their commitment and
vol. 40 | Prajapati Sandesh 2015 | www.prajapati.org.uk
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