Non-profit Berendina increases scholarships to 5,000 annually from 1,000
Berendina, one of Sri Lanka’s leading poverty alleviation agencies in Sri Lanka which has a four pronged approach such as development services, micro-finance; micro investment and employment, is now also providing scholarships worth Rs.10 million.
The support is offered under the programme ‘Rural Students’ Scholarship’ which identifies academically-oriented students who come from poor families living in rural and estate areas.
Berendina Chairman Dulan de Silva and Ms Lianne Houben, Charge de Affairs, Netherlands Embassy at the launch.
Last week in Colombo, Berendina launched ‘Give2SriLanka’ Crowd-funding initiative to increase the number of scholarships from 1,000 to 5,000 annually. Explaining how the programme works, Dulan de Silva, Chairman, Berendina Group said that they believe that children should have equal rights to education and they have been aiming to achieve this goal since the past two decades.
If this aim could be achieved he foresaw a wealth of professional leaders who could steer the country towards prosperity.
Some of these children, he said reside in post-disaster and post-conflict areas where the most marginalised communities are found.
Children eligible to scholarships are those who have passed the GCE (OL) Examination with six credit passes including Mathematics and are selected from families whose monthly income is less than Rs 5,000. Mr. De Silva said that the programme effectively guides students through their Advanced Levels to undergraduate studies.
At the launch, one of the scholarship recipients – 19 year old Nimanthika Fernando spoke and said that she is from Hakbellavaka, Yatiyantota. She said her father abandoned the family when she was just two years old. Her mother toiled hard to raise the family in various places and now due to an accident her mother is fragile and partially blind.
The family was struggling to survive, without a proper income, Ms. Nimanthika lamented. She said that Berendina identified their plight and started giving a monthly allowance of Rs. 1,000 as medical expenses for her mother. Berendina renovated their house and gave a pair of spectacles for her mother, she indicated with gratitude.
In 2010 Ms. Nimanthika was selected for a scholarship. She passed the AL and is now following a degree course in the Arts stream at the University of Kelaniya. She told the audience “I hope to become a teacher or do something in the field of arts after completing my degree”.
Berendina initially commenced operations in the village of Garagoda, Yatiyantota area in 1987, through a trust created by a Dutch philanthropist Ms. Berendina Borst. It functions as an INGO with operations in Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Trincomalee, Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Kegalle, Puttalam, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu districts.
The scholarship programme is a part of the agency’s overall strategy to alleviate poverty and create sustainable communities. The Give2SriLanka fund-raising initiative aims to generate a source of non-institutional funds to support this programme. Berendina has invited all public spirited citizens to contribute to this initiative.