INTO Giving is supporting six girls from Kovalam, India to go on to higher education with grants totalling £12,500 (US $16,000) in partnership with the Venkat Trust. In the COVID-19 pandemic, INTO Giving is providing £1,000 (US $1,300) of emergency support.
Lela
Top of her class
Chosen course: BCom Finance & Chartered Accountancy
Ambition: Accounts Auditor/Financial Analyst
Family: fisherman father, mother and younger sister
Hobbies: Dancing, singing, crafts

Answar Sowfia
Chosen course: BCom General Ambition:
Bank manager
Family: father who has a roadside stall, mother and two brothers
Hobbies: Singing

Reshma
Chosen course: BCom in Bank Management
Ambition: Bank Manager
Family: gardener mother and younger brother, father deceased
Hobbies: Weaving wire baskets, tailoring

Kaviya
Chosen course: BCom Bank Management
Ambition: Company Secretary
Family: Father, a granite cutting machine operator, mother and sisters
Hobbies: Writing Tamil poetry, reading

Vishali
Chosen course: BSc Psychology and then a post-grad degree
Family: Vishali is an orphan and lives with her older fisherman brother and sister
Hobbies: Crafts

Abiya
Chosen course: BCom General
Ambition: Banking industry
Family: father, a casual boat operator, mother, brother and sister
Hobbies: Singing

About Venkat Trust
Venkat is a local education project in Kovalam, a small and impoverished fishing village in Tamil Nadu, on the south east coast of India.
Through the Venkat sponsorship scheme, 400 of the poorest children, 60% of them girls, are guaranteed improved welfare and the opportunity to realise their potential through further education.
Of the 65 now at university, 40 of them female. A further 62 have already graduated from university, of whom 36 are women.
£4 or $4 can help a girl with dreams go on to higher education
Where is this project?

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