SELECTION PROCESS

SCHOLARSHIP TO THOSE WHO DESERVE IT, BUT CAN’T AFFORD IT

Working on the ground with local schools and educators, the PEF is able to identify potential candidates who can then apply for our help.

We painstakingly target students living in poverty and identified by their teachers as being the most gifted. In this way we can focus our support on the children most likely to benefit and go on to give back to their communities and the wider Sri Lankan society.

Selection process:

SCHOLARSHIP ADVERTISEMENT
Our approach is 100% grass-roots, placing advertisements in tiny local newspapers and directly contacting school principals.
SELECTION BY SCHOOL GRADES
Our team looks at the marks the students receive for the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination – a highly competitive Sri Lankan examination conducted by the Department of Examinations of the Ministry of Education*.
SELECTION BY FINANCIAL NEED
Having found the high achievers and due to the limited number of scholarship available, we actively discriminate in favour of underprivileged children from difficult backgrounds.
VERIFICATION
The Sri Lankan team pays unannounced visits to the short-listed students at their schools and in their homes. Using local knowledge and a streetwise approach they quickly verify the details given in the application forms – ruling out dubious applications and directing the funds to exactly the right recipients.

THE VISITS

In the final stage of the selection process the PEF team personally meets the families of the children and checks all of the details given to ensure that the most suitable children were selected.
Travel to some of the outlying rural areas of Sri Lanka is extremely challenging and our team depend on Sri Lankan resourcefulness to make the unannounced visits – motorbikes, tuktuks, bicycles… but most of all determination and a sense of humour.
Our fund raising and distribution is important to us and the PEF has consulted an anthropologist with funding from the Danish Council to advise on our selection process.

With your help, we can increase the number of scholarships next year, helping more talented Sri Lankan children to achieve success in often indescribably difficult circumstances.

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Inaugurations

The visits end with an inauguration party where all the selected children participate along with their families.
On this occasion, they receive a backpack containing school pens, crayons and notebooks.
At the inauguration, the faces of the children, often lined with worry during our visits, are completely different – their smiles light up the room.

If you can spare £100, you can make a smile happen and fund a full year of school.

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