“ Since the start of SPAITF programme , the committee have so far supported almost 229 individual young students ...”
Engineering , Medicine , Electrical Engineering , Civil Engineering , Nursing , Physiotherapy , Science , Optometry , just to name a few .
In October 2015 , the committee considered a total of 20 applications ; approved 14 and rejected 6 applications . A total grant of £ 2,525 from NTF endowment and £ 200 from the Education Fund was made .
In March 2016 the committee considered a total of 20 applications ; approved 14 and rejected 6 applications . A total grant of £ 2,450 from NTF endowment and £ 250 from the Education Fund was made .
Challenges Like any grant giving organisation we do have our challenges , such as monitoring , publicity , duplication of funding and documentation .
• Monitoring - we believe this would remain to be a challenge for the time being , but we have introduced some new questions to ensure that the application is genuine .
• Publicity - we have deliberately not pursued this area as we need to balance the availability of funds at our disposal to possible demand if we publicise the grant plan widely . With a degree of confidence , we have received reports from trustees who travel regularly to India that a good majority of our community are aware of SPAITF grant programme .
• Duplication of funding - it came to light that few individuals also applied to Shree Prajapati Education Foundation ( SPEF ) administered by Prajapati members in Canada and as a result SPAITF committee have agreed to formally develop ‘ Memorandum of Understanding ’ with SPEF , with the view to reducing duplication and to spread our limited funds by supporting more applications .
• The ‘ On-line application ’ process is proving to be much better as all applicants have to answer the same questions and it is easier to manage . The time spent on processing applications has dramatically reduced and has made it easy to follow up with individual applicants and cut our postage down by some 95 % and speed of communication is much better .
Reasons for unsuccessful applications It is important to inform our members of some of the reasons for rejecting / not supporting applicants for example :
• Some individuals do not disclose all the information needed in order for the committee to assess their application and as a result they are not supported .
• Further clarification is required on the loan the applicant takes out .
• Lack of correct declaration .
• Evidence is not provided to clarify if applicants have received any funding from other organisations in India , Canada or from relatives .
• We ask for additional information and applicants fail to respond .
• We have received a number of applications from those seeking funding for their Master ’ s degree which SPAITF do not fund and therefore do not meet our funding criteria .
• Clarification required of parental income and tuition fees , etc . vol . 41 | Prajapati Sandesh 2016 23