There is a very sage proverb that says “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. Mohan Nannapaneni, Shama Nannapaneni, and Friends Foundation believe this maxim, wholeheartedly.
Therefore, the best form of assistance that could be given to needy children is proper education. Education increases the capacity of the individual to make immediate and lasting changes in his/her life and enables the child to face the challenges in life with more confidence. Education brings out the latent powers residing within every human being and develops the ability to use and express those powers in new and innovative ways. With this noble objective in mind, the foundation took the initiative to improve educational institutions. We wanted to provide a better learning environment at the schools so that students can focus on their lessons instead of worrying about their living environment. For details of our service to Education, please see Schools and Scholarships sections. – this is the scholarship section?
Friends Foundation: Breaking the cycle of poverty one student at a time
The Nannapaneni Mohan and Friends Foundation scholarship program supports gifted students who lack the means to pay for their higher education. Our scholarships are awarded to deserving students without regard for their caste, color, religion, location or social conditions. We look only to their merit, ambition, diligence, and need as factors in our decision to render assistance.
Here are just a few of the stories of lives we are proud we helped to change for the better:
A student from Khammam, Ramesh lived in a one-room shack where there is no electricity, drinking water or sanitary facilities. His mother, a single parent, worked hard, sweeping the streets of the town, but hardly earned any money. With the help of a local educational institute (New Wave College) and our foundation, Ramesh scored in the top fifteen out of nearly 150,000 students. Scoring in the top 0.1 percentile secured him a seat in Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, which is an unbelievable achievement. When he needed financial support to continue his education at IIT, our foundation proudly came forward to help Ramesh, a role model for many other students. Scholarship: ₹ 1,60,000.
A student GK, from a very poor family in Kadapa district, (supported by a single mother, who could not able to work as daily labor in farmland and eventually become a beggar) approached our foundation for his higher education. Despite his poverty, this young man, hailing from public schools secured a medicine seat in a reputed college. Our foundation supported his medical education with a scholarship over ₹ 2,00,000. With the support of our foundation, he completed his bachelor’s in medicine and Masters in Radiology.
A student Kamal, from the remote village of Khammam, and raised out of public schooling, secured 236th rank in IIT entrance exam. But his working-class family could not support his education in a metropolitan city. Friends Foundation graciously supported his four-year college at IIT Chennai. He is now an entrepreneur.
A poor farmer from a village approached our foundation to seek financial support for his daughter, who is intelligent and a skilled athlete, as well. Although she had the ability and aptitude for graduate-level education, her father could not afford the tuition & hostel fees for her Master’s degree at Osmania University. We happily provided two years of scholarship to cover her expenses. After she graduated, she scored state first rank among women on the police recruitment examination and got selected for a job in the police department of Andhra Pradesh State. We then helped her further with another ₹ 10,000 to pay for training. Now she is a Sub-Inspector and her family is no longer living in poverty. Scholarship: ₹ 30,000
A student from a rural village of the Krishna district graduated from the government schools there and secured an Engineering admission in Biotechnology at Tirupathi. Her parents were agricultural workers and could not pay for her education outside the village. She was supported by the generosity of some of the other villagers for her first year, but not thereafter. When we found out she was giving up her studies for financial reasons, we responded and continued to provide uninterrupted financial assistance throughout her studies. She is now in the final year of her B.Tech, and with our advice and support, she is going to her M. Tech. Scholarship: ₹ 60,000.
There are several more similar stories. Friends Foundation supported over 60 students at various Medical colleges, and Engineering colleges, including students in IIT’s. There are more than forty students, who benefited from our Foundation, and are currently settled in successful career paths. We are very happy for their success.
Where there are deserving students, who have the character to overcome adversity with a positive attitude, the Friends Foundation is there for them. Our purpose and passion are to be open-handed to poor and disadvantaged students to help them improve their own lives and the lives of those around them.