Sarojini Damodaran Foundation opens up opportunities for students in Andhra, Telangana and TN

HYDERABAD: Sarojini Damodaran Foundation (SDF), founded by Infosys co-founder SD Shibulal and his wife Kumari Shibulal in 1999, is planning to expand its ‘Vidyadhan’ initiative to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu this year. Till now, Vidyadhan has been catering to economically backward students from Kerala and Karnataka.
The foundation selects meritorious students from low income families, who have completed 10th, and takes care of their educational expenses for over five to six years till the students complete their education and find employment.
So far 1,634 scholars (1,462 from Kerala and 172 from Karnataka) have been supported under the Vidyadhan scheme and the alumni consists of 45 doctors, 246 engineers and 55 nurses, among others.
Speaking about future plans, SD Shibulal said, “Over the years, we have built a model that will allow us to scale up further. Our model consists of identification, verification, monitoring, funding and mentoring of students. As we enter into new states, we are also asking others to sponsor students so that we can take care of identification, verification and monitoring aspects and the sponsors can take care of the last two.”
Shibulal further emphasized that it is a “direct sponsorship model” and students get funded directly and the foundation facilitates as well as monitors the entire process for the full tenure.
Kumari Shibulal pointed out that every year the foundation selects 150 students through an extensive selection process and from this year onwards, it has started inviting applications from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu as well. The foundation aims to cater to about 10,000 students in seven to 10 years.
She explained that the foundation has been targeting students who have finished their 10th as many meritorious students are forced to discontinue studies at this point due to lack of financial resources and are forced to become earning members.