So you are first generation college goer – amongst the challenges you have had to overcome are many. Then at the threshold of higher education you now are faced with expenses of books, and tools.
A tool that’s essential in the classroom is a laptop ; the student has scored a scholarship the covers tuition, books. Parental support for boarding, what else is missing. Procuring that laptop is another twenty thousand rupees! That shouldn’t stop you.
GEF, a very innovative TAP partner has a solution for this dimension. How about we get gently used machines and make them available to the scholars. Sounds simple, and it is – any number of logistics issues that come up are surmountable to further the education of a scholar.
First year – experimental setup where we received a donation of 20 laptops and happy to report all 20 were transported to India and in the hands of worthy students. GEF’s model is that the student receiving the laptop as a loan; not to be repaid as an older machine 3-4 years later, but in terms of value of the laptop. And these students pay it forward when they are productively employed in the form of monies, mentoring and time of service. It’s a virtuous cycle here.