SPA UK Sandesh 2015 | Page 23

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 21