Breadsociety news for January

here. Excerpt:
"BREAD Society had just completed awarding about a thousand scholarships – 569 fresh scholarships and 422 renewals on November 25, 2007. The Society had the biggest surprise waiting at its doorstep. Here comes a noble soul offering it a donation of Rs. 1.25 crore for the award of fresh scholarships. He wanted the entire donation to be utilized for giving scholarships."
The site for the breadsociety is www.breadsocietyindia.org and it does not seem to be working at the moment. A few days ago, I was in Hyderabad and expressed the desire to know the workings of the society which I heard gave scholarships without considerations of caste or crees. The secretary Ramamohan Rao Kakani came to see me at 7:30 in the morning on his motorcycle and explained their work over 3 hours. He is 70 yeard old and finds it is easier and faster to travel on motorcycle in Hyderabad traffic. From what I could gather, it was an informal group of senior govt. officials, many of them from Andhra villages, who felt that many poor, bright students in their villages missed out on educational opporunities and started the organization about 12 years ago. The criteria for giving scholarships and minitoring process have been evolving over years. Originally they depended on income certificates from local officials to decide eligible candidates. Later they realized that many from relatively affluent families were able to produce those certificates and decided to give the scholarships mainly to those from govt. funded schools. Funds seem to have increased in the last four years and last year, they gave over 500scholarships. They have now a database for the scholarship to students so that they can guage their progress over years and their careers later on. Monitoring is done by examining four reports an year from the beneficiaries and periodic visits from the members of the organization. It is my understanding that these visits, mainly by Mr. Kakani and other organizers, are at their own expense and they can do with more volunteers. Some more details are in my earlier post "Some useful organizations" and Mr. Kakani and others can be contacted for any clarifications. But one wonders about the life span of these organizations and whether they will survive after such people.