We request all of our supporters to send a donation, big or small, to
NCEF so that we raise enough money to cover our annual expenses for
2010.

We count on supporters like you to invest in the future of the children we support. This year, we are supporting 63 students and running a number of pilot programs to expand our work in the future years. Our budget for 2010 was $10,000 but we have only raised $7,412 so far. We know that many of our supporters are waiting till the end of the year to make a donation. Now is a good time to send your contribution. Without your support, we will not be able to meet our minimum fundraising goal of covering all of our expenses. As you know, all of our expenses are used to support the field work in Nepal. There are no salaries, compensations, or office expenses.

NCEF provides financial assistance that enables many poor Nepalese children to attend school. Many children in Nepal—especially, the ones in rural areas—need financial assistance to continue their education. Due to limited resources, NCEF cannot support all the students who apply for financial assistance. Every year, the task of the selection committee is to identify the neediest students who would be supported by NCEF.

The Team:

The student selection committee for the year 2010-2011 consisted of the following members.

Abhishek Sharma (Chair) Bhusan Neupane Suman Thapamagar Laura Satkamp Maheshwor Kafle Aadit Sitaula Ritu Shreshtha

Procedure:

NCEF currently operates in nine areas in Nepal: Birgunj, Dolkha, Kathmandu, Kavre, Nepalgunj, Patan, Rasuwa, Sunsari, and Lamatar.  We collected applications for renewal of financial assistance for students from these areas. In addition, this year, NCEF awarded scholarships to 5 new students – 4 in Rasuwa and 1 in Patan.

Our first task was to define the criteria for student selection. These criteria can be viewed at http://www.nepalchildren.org/selection_criteria.html. Next, we designed the application forms for renewal of financial assistance (available for download at http://www.nepalchildren.org/about.html#apps ). In the past, when evaluating new student applications, several student selection committee members had found it difficult to assess the financial condition of an applicant’s family based on only their reported income. This year, we added several questions designed to assess the material wealth in a household (e.g., mobile phones, TV, radio, etc.) as well as the livestock owned by a family. This provided us with a better picture of the resources available to an applicant’s family.

We e-mailed the application forms to our field volunteers in Nepal. Field volunteers distributed the new applications to schools as well as to the parents.  They also distributed the renewal applications to all students who received financial assistance during the previous year.

Field volunteers collected the applications and academic reports from schools. They scanned all these documents, and emailed them to NCEF selection committee. For each renewal applicant, they also provided their recommendation on whether or not NCEF should continue funding the student.  After receiving all the applications from an area, they were distributed to all the selection committee members.

The Selection Process:

Renewal students: When deciding whether or not to renew a student’s funding, our goal was to verify three things: (1) has the student been promoted to the next class? , (2) has the student’s financial condition improved to the point where they do not need NCEF support? (This happens on rare occasions), and (3) is the environment at a student’s home and his/her health good enough to allow the student to focus on his/her education?  If certain renewal applications require special consideration, we interact with the field volunteers for additional information on documenting any requirements that are waived.

New students: For each area, every selection committee member ranks all the applicants based on their application and the recommendations from field volunteers. The ranking from all selection committee members are averaged out to create a final ranking for that area. Top candidates from this list are selected for financial assistance.  Ties were resolved through discussion and voting amongst the selection committee members. All the selections should satisfy the NCEF student selection criteria.

Results:

We selected a total of 60 students. Some of the renewal applications were for students who had passed the School Level Examination (SLC) which is conducted nationally in the tenth grade. These decisions could not be made until after the SLC examination results were declared, and hence, were made separately from the rest of the students. Figure 1 shows the distribution of students across the various areas.

Figure 1: NCEF students: Birgunj: 2, Dolkha: 7, Kathmandu: 5, Kavre: 4, Lamatar: 2,
Nepalgunj: 12, Patan: 12, Rasuwa: 6, Sunsari 10
                                                     

Out of the 60 students, 39 (65%) are female. Last year, 62% of our students were female.

Challenges:

For renewal students, the main challenges that selection committee faced this year was the inability to collect complete applications from Nepal on time. Several applications were incomplete. There was also a long delay in receiving academic reports.  These problems led to delays in student selection. The selection committee had to review the applications on an ongoing basis.

For renewal students, we did not get enough applications on time. We received far fewer applications than we had requested (only 3 from Patan instead of 9-10, and 7 from Rasuwa instead of 12-15). This
created additional delays while we were trying to make sure whether we could get more applications or not.

Recommendations:

With regards to new students, our suggestion is that the NCEF executive board should consult the volunteers in Nepal to see if they can collect enough applications prior to setting the number of scholarships awarded to new students.

For renewal students, barring a small number of incomplete applications, the main reason for delay was not receiving the academic transcripts on time.  Unfortunately, the volunteers in Nepal often do not receive the transcript until the start of new session in April. And the selection committee does not receive them until May-July.   One suggestion is to request the volunteers to get a certified letter from the school stating whether a student has passed or failed instead of waiting for their final transcript. This letter can then be supplemented with the academic transcript when it becomes available.

Acknowledgments:

The selection committee would like to thank all the NCEF volunteers for collecting and sending student applications.