CHENNAI: About 100 children from marginalised communities were a delighted lot on Saturday as they received educational scholarships supported by Indian Community Welfare Organization (ICWO) in collaboration with Village Service Trust, Belgium and MR Pratap Public Charitable Trust. About 75 per cent of the beneficiaries were girl children.
At the programme organised to distribute the scholarships, Justice TN Vallinayagam lauded the efforts of the ICWO and said, “In the present scenario, poor and marginalised children find it very difficult to attain quality education and it remains a dream. But efforts like these will definitely be an encouragement and support to the marginalised sections of society.”
Speaking on the occasion, AJ Hariharan, Director, ICWO, said that there would be no dropouts as the children who have received the support can now continue their education.
“We expect the children to utilise the opportunity successfully for their career development. When they start earning, the awardees are expected to contribute up to 5 per cent of their salary to those who are still in need and a similar situation,” he said. He also informed that this is the eleventh year of the ICWO providing education scholarships to marginalised children and that the NGO is committed to continue this effort in the future. Justice Vallinayagam, Arushi Kakkar, Manager, HR. ITC Limited Educational & Stationary Products Business; M Baskaran, president, ICWO; and Katy Wall, International Volunteer, ICWO; gave away the scholarships to the children.