My Himachal HOPE scholarships-Your participation required

Dear Valued Member,

Greetings from My Himachal team. As most you know that this year once again, My Himachal sponsored Health Mela in association with medical staff and doctors of the Jibhi CHAI project (part of Lady Willingdon Hospital (LWH), Manali), local villagers and volunteers in the Upper Banjar Valley for the 4th year in a row successfully.

This year My Himachal has extended its efforts to provide scholarships to deserving students in Himachal under program “My Himachal Hope scholarships“. As this was our first year of scholarship program, we tried our level best to get the word across to all parts of Himachal with the help of media, friends and family. As a result we received around 205 applications for school level scholarships from various parts of Himachal. As this was our first year we could not expect better response than this. My Himachal team comprising of Mr. Anil Chandel, Mr. Vinay Jamwal and Mr. Anuj Butail developed a model to select most deserving applicants based on merit using marks obtained by the applicant in the lower class, participation in extra-curricular/community/social service activities, Family Income during last financial year, family size, BPL/IRDP family status and other factors that affect the means available to an applicant to continue their education in the current class.[/lang_en][lang_en]

None of these applicants deserved to be denied scholarships but we have only funds for 66 students selected on the basis of the criteria described above. The funds that we have for this purpose comes from the membership fee that you valued members paid. We have been requesting members to become paid members for a while and My Himachal team understands the inability of some members to spend money for membership.

We have reached a point where every dime you can contribute will make a difference. We do not want any deserving student to be denied scholarship. Though we understand that it will not be possible to achieve the 200 target but we pledge to get as closer to the number as possible by shedding a small amount of money out of our pockets. We spend couple of dollars for a cup of coffee or may be burger. Think of just a day without a cup of coffee and a child going to school for a full year without worrying about money. The math is simple; every dollar you contribute will make a difference in some body’s life.

We plan to disburse the scholarship next week. Sorry for the short notice but there is still a week to go. On our website (http://myhimachal.com/) we have put a donate button. Please donate whatever amount you can. Even a single dollar donated will be a big help. So please! Please! Please! for this cause and make a difference in a child?s life. As soon as we disburse the scholarship money, My Himachal team will work on putting up information including periodic performance of the recipient on our web site. So in that way you can see for yourself what difference your little or big help made.

You can read more about our efforts by visiting our website.

Looking forward to your contribute to a state that we call our home. We here at My Himachal strive for our state, so should you. So let’s make a difference. Your help is our inspiration.

Best Regards

My Himachal Team

Dr. Des Raj Kashyap

Microbiologist and a Toxicologist, Des was born in Nither, Kullu, Himachal Pradesh. At present Dr. Kashyap is working as a Research Faculty at Indiana University School of Medicine in Gary, Indiana, USA.