Nirmaan Scholarship, a Navigator of Dreams

Most often, the best solutions emerge out of the worst experiences of a problem and Nirmaan Scholarship and Mentorship Program (NSMP) is one such solutions emerged from a painful experience. Friends, getting an admission at BITS Pilani was my dream as it was and is for many of us. Fortunately, I got an admission at Pilani in 2002 and I was asked to pay Rs 17,500 Semester tuition  fee and Rs 10,000 for admission fee along with another Rs 5,000 for mess advance to get an admission.

Rs 32,500 was a big amount for us at that time. It was the time when the drought for consecutive years has pushed the farming community into the mire of debts. It wasn't obviously affordable for my parents to gather such a big amount to get me an admission ay Pilani but in spite of all that, they have unturned every stone to make it happen. But they couldn't succeed. I approached most of the banks in my nearby locality and explained my case and requested for loans but they had nothing to offer me except their sympathies as we don't possess any lands or buildings or other assets in cities which we can offer them as a guarantee for the loan. We almost lost hopes that I would even see the gates of BITS and It's during that difficult time, one of our villagers named Venkataiah one of the close friends of my father understood our difficulties and my aspirations and whom I regard as my God, sold his own land and gave me Rs 28,000 because of which today I am writing this post today. He was not a well educated person. He also doesn't understand what an admission at BITS mean but what he understood was my aspiration to get good education and succeed in life. He was not even a rich person to do any philanthropy for us but he had that kind heart with which he sold an acre out of the three acres of land he had and helped me travel long miles from there.

It's that suffering that I have gone through when I had my ambitions but I didnt have enough money to even think of it and its that experience of how a kind heart of Venkataiah could help us realize my dreams compelled me to initiate a program like Nirmaan Scholarship and Mentorship Program to help the students like me who are in need of financial assistance to pursue the studies that they dream of. From day one when we started Nirmaan, It was a dream to make such an initiative which can help students who are meritorious but do not have sufficient money to pursue the studies that they dream for. And with God's grace, In 2008 we launched this program by providing scholarship of Rs 8,000 each to 8 students. From then onwards, the program has grown exponentially and this year we were able to provide 63 scholarships of Rs 10,000 each. In total, till date we were able to award around 180 scholarships with approximately Rs 17 Lakhs. 

               

Once a student is selected through a merit cum need basis for the scholarship, Nirmaan provides scholarship to the student till the completion of his/her studies. As a part of NSMP, we not only provide financial assistance but we also provide mentorship by which we try to impart skills that are required to succeed in placement interviews and in life. We conduct one skill building session every year for all the scholars and we also assign each student a person from the corporate world as a mentor who will be constantly in contact with students and mentor them. Around 25 students who received Nirmaan scholarship have graduated till now and out of them around 90% of the students are placed and are currently working for prestigious MNCs like Infosys, Wipro, TCs etc. The best success for the program was felt when some of the Nirmaan scholars after their graduation approached us and came forward to contribute back to the program to help the students like them.

The program has been so successful in terms of meeting its objective primarily because of the generous contributions from the donors and secondly because of the passion and the dedication of people like Varun, Naresh, Puch, Mayur, Sridhar, Tejaswini and many other dedicated soldiers of Nirmaan in the past. And currently the project is led by a new passionate team comprising of Chethan, Rajesh, Ravindar, Naresh, Rudra Verma, Sagar, Sharath, Meena and many other volunteers who want to direct the program to a level where it can help more and more number of students with diverse needs and to realize their dreams through both financial support and through mentorship.

I am sure that the NSMP team can succeed in its efforts only with a greater participation and generous contributions from people around us. After going through this blog post, I am sure you would be compelled to take part in NSMP and would like to know ways to do so. The two major ways in which you take part in program are: 1. Monetary contributions for the scholarships. 2. Be in regular contact with one of our scholars and mentor him/her. Why to wait then? Please contact either me at rakesh.anugula@gmail.com, +91-9686036488 or Chethan at murarichethan@gmail.com, +91-9731821003 to take part in this noble cause.

      SPONSOR A SCHOLARSHIP, SHAPE A STUDENT'S FUTURE

Educate is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.