Consolidation of Activities

2022- 2023

The year saw consolidation of activities and expanding into new areas.

Support to Mr. V. Sunildass is continuing. He successfully completed his MSc. Degree in Chemistry from Madurai Kamaraj University securing 81% marks. Prerequisite for getting admission to a PhD degree program requires clearing GATE and/or CSIR NET course which requires further coaching. Various coaching options were explored and finally Hyderabad based coaching institute was identified as the suitable choice. The foundation decided to pay for his coaching as well as stay in a hostel in Hyderabad. His monthly stipend support was also increased to Rs. 5,000 from August 2022 and coaching fees and support was started from February 2023. He has started preparing and appearing for competitive examinations and the target for him is to qualify in one of the competitive examinations by December 2023.  Total amount spent for various activities and support for Mr. Sunildass for the FY 2022-23 amounted Rs. 1,04,600

Support to Ms. Bowjiya Christina is continuing. She has progressed further in her theatre and movie production apprenticeship. She has enrolled as theatre artist in various theatre production companies and has acted in four plays. She has worked as Assistant Director under Mr. Kali Rangasamy and under Mr. Arun Vaseegaran for the production of the movie “The Road” which was released in May 2023. She has started working with Sivakarthikeyan on her second movie “Kottukkali”.  The support to Ms. Bowjiya during the FY 2022-23 amounted to Rs. 1,44,000.

Two BCom second year students, Ms. Jothilakshmi and Ms. Pushpakala have successfully completed their second-year examinations. Stipendiary and fees support is continuing. Total amounts spent on these two students during FY 2022-23 amounted to Rs. 68,690.

Ms. Sangeetha Thangadurai has successfully completed her BSc. (Zoology) course with 70% marks in the final year. She is planning to continue her studies for the MSc degree in the same college for which she has requested support from the foundation. Rs. 79,400 was spend on her college and hostel support during the FY 2022-23.

During the year 2022-23, considering the exigencies of the dire financial situation for two school going girls in Bangalore, the foundation decided to support them by providing their school fees.  Accordingly, the foundation paid the school fees for Ms. Jayashree M (Class IX) and Ms. Anagha M (Class V) during the FY 2022-23 amounting to Rs. 48,500.

Ms. Sajana Vignesh had dropped out of engineering college where she was pursuing the BE course in Electronic and Communication Engineering for undergoing gender affirmation surgery as a transwoman at the end of her third year.  Post her altered gender status, the financial support she was receiving was stopped due to procedural reasons. She requested the foundation to support her to pay the college fees for completing the fourth year and get her BE degree. The foundation provided the college fees amounting to Rs. 50,000 for two semesters during the FY 2022-23. She has now successfully obtained her engineering degree and has also secured a job in Coimbatore.

Mr. Haridaran M, completely visually challenged, with a MA and BEd degrees was working as Administration Officer in KPN Travels and during COVID pandemic lost his job. He had started his own small business of providing e-seva services and wanted a computer to operate his business. The foundation bought a new desktop computer and provided it to him. He now successfully runs his own business providing e-seva services and xerox copying services.

Mr. R Sridharan, second year BCom student at SRM Trichy Arts and Science College, suddenly lost his father, the sole earning member in his family. With no financial means to pursue his college studies, his mother Ms. Umamaheswari Raghupati, approached the foundation through a common contact and requested for financial support to pay the second year second semester fees so that the college will allow him to write the examination. The foundation paid Rs. 13,500 and agreed to also support his third-year college fees so that Mr. Sridharan can complete his BCom degree. He passed the second year second semester examination with 66% marks, and he is now in the third year.

The foundation has been supporting PEAK, Kodaikanal, for their Global English Language Program by providing bus charges for students to travel from the city to The Sacred Heart College, Shenbaganur away from the Kodaikanal town.  The PEAK requested the foundation to modify the terms of support from providing the bus charges to paying an English faculty fee. Accordingly, from August 2023, the foundation started supporting the monthly charges for an English teacher. Total support extended to PEAK during the FY 2022-23 amounted to Rs. 1,56,500.

The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore announced the annual DR. T R Bhaskaran endowment prize, instituted by the Pratibodh Foundation through an endowment to the IISc, Bangalore. For the year 2022, the Rs. I,00,000 prize was awarded to Mr. Mani Garg for his work on the research project on "Deciphering the potential role of RGG-peptides in the dissolution of disease-relevant condensates".