The AVSAR scholarship programme is initiated by The Akshaya Patra Foundation to address the concern of school dropouts due to financial constraints. Since its inception in 2014, the programme has nurtured the dreams of over 4,000 students by bridging the gap between these students and institutions that offer scholarships.In essence, Akshaya Patra plays the role of the facilitator and sources scholarship opportunities for deserving students from the wide array of scholarships offered by the Government and corporates.
The programme is a part of the Foundation’s flagship initiative, National Endeavour for Student Transformation (NEST), to go beyond the mid-day meals and facilitate the holistic development of children. It aims to “identify deserving students from underserved sections of society and nurture their aspiration by providing financial aid.”The objectives of this programme are:
· Empower students in Government and Aided schools through scholarships
· Motivate students to make the best use of Government and private scholarships available
· Reduce dropout percentage from schools due to financial constraints
For many families, this financial freedom leads to a more encouraging and holistic environment for students to continue their education. Such success stories serve to inspire the AVSAR team to put in more efforts to extend the programme to other deserving students.Most often, over 60% of students are not matched to any funds due to limited reach, online process, and tedious documentation. 40% of funds are not matched to any students due to lack of awareness and support, mistakes in the application, or their lack of proficiencyin English. In such cases, the team at AVSAR revisits these applications after consulting the donors to check if the cut-off percentage can be relaxed. In some cases, the applications are re-submitted with more details or converted into digital forms to reduce errors and provide assistance to the students and their families in the application process.
In six years, the AVSAR programme has covered over 329 educational institutions and has profiled thousands of students in a pursuit to financially empower their aspirations. The programme intends to find its way to many more deserving students across the nation and fuel their aspirations, one scholarship at a time, one ‘avsar’ at a time.
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