How can I help this girl?

On another thread, I spoke about a charitable Trust in India I worked with for a while. Among its many projects, the Trust founded a school for poor rural children, most of whom had no access to schooling, or even if they did, have to work to help support their families. The criteria for entering the school is the ability and wish to learn, and that the parents support the pupil's attendance by sending them to school and giving them time for homework. If need be, the parents are helped financially to make up for the child's lost labour.
The school is for children aged 3 to 18, and finishes with a leaving certificate that enables the kids to go to college. There is a free local college they can attend.
From the beginning, the school had a very high standard. It is financed entirely by donations from the West,and I believe after a while an Ameircan charity took over the running expenditures. The poorest children are supported by a Western sponsor, who paid about $30 a month for the child's education. Buildings and equipment were financed by private Western donors.
Unusual about this school is that it is English Medium. That is so special in India, and English opens so many doors, that it soon became a desired school even for the children of wealthier parents, who pay a school fee. It has science labs, computer room, library, and apart form the usual subjects teaches classical music and dance - all for free for the poor.

For the last few years the daughter of a gardener I know has been corresponding with me. I met her two years ago in her home. She lives in a one room hut with thatched roof, no furniture or running water or toilets; they all sleep on the ground, cook over a primitive fire, etc. There are only two children, the girl (her name is Uthra) and her younger brother.
Her letters are rather comical; she writes good English, but sometimes in the highblown typical Indian style, but uses teen slang such as "u" for you. She calls me Auntie, and refers to my husband (whom she's never met) as Uncle. Always very polite, with wishes for our good health, prayers etc.
She attends the above school, and is very motivated. She has just passed her final exams and is eager, not to go to the local college, but farther afield - Madras, probably - to University. She wants to study, of all things, Aeronautics. I registered this with some amazement, because this girl has probably never even seen a plane flying overhead (they don't cross that village) much less been inside one. She's had this dream for over a year now, and keeps mentioning it to me in her letters. When I offered to send her some books (I was thinking along the lines of some YA novels) she ased for a book on Aeronautics. I went to the biggest bookshop in Britain (Foyles) but could not find a suitable book.
Anyway - in a recent letter she says that her education will cost about £8000, and asked if I could help in any way. That amount is a fortune to the family - no way they can afford it, and there is no government help. Unfortunately, it's also a fortune to me at the moment, as we are going through financial straits right now. But I find this girl's ambition so quirky and fascinating, I told her I'd try and help and asked her to send a photo, which she did; I'll scan it and post it here later.
I've been wondering what I could do. First I though of starting a little charity of my own to raise the funds, but rejected that idea as it would take too long, and I haven't got the time to canvas for help. I though of writing to British Independent girls' schools: they have students from very rich families at such schools and they have such a bad conscience that they love to do their bit for others. But again, that would be a very big project for me at this time. I thought of writing an article, but it's not newsworthy enough, I feel; though I might try that anyway.
So I was wondering if anyone knows of some kind of educational charity I could turn to, that supports individual cases like this. Or maybe you have a rich spinster aunt who would like to sponsor her, or something.
She is about 18 now, and really deserves help. She's a lovely girl, very simple, humble and sweet.

special needs said:

Wow. Well, this is going to seem random but...do you have a website? I heard a story of a guy who wanted to propose to his wife but didn't have the money to buy a ring. He built a website, found some advertisers, and begged people to visit the ads pages a few times a day. If you have a website with a decent amount of 'hits', that could work out...

Of course, this may not be plausible, but since I can help in no other way, thought I'd offer up that idea.

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Yes, I do have a website, and this was one of my first ideas... but - for one, I don't have enough hits to generate much of a fund. People might give $5 or $10, but how long would that take? Last year I did a similar thing for flood victims in Guyana and I hardly collected anything at all - I think about $40.

An online currency converter gave £8000 as $14259

As for this website - that never even occured to me! What do others think? I also had the idea of writing an article for our local newspaper; they know me a bit as a local author and might be wiling to publish something.

GPatten said:

What’s wrong with this web site? You’ve posted a plea, this is an international forum and viewed by many...everywhere.

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My suggestion would be:

1. Make this a sticky thread here in “Office Party”.

2. Acquire an account at a bank as a trust fund. Post the name and address of the bank and the name of the account.

I don’t know why this can’t be done.

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How much in US dollars is £8000 worth?

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Mac H. said:

This is going to sound harsh, but ...


Mac

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Not at all harsh, Mac, just realistic and down to earth; I have asked myself some of these questions myself, and in fact I fully intend to ask her some more searching questions before starting anything; it's too much money to be responsible for, without knowing more details.

Though she is poor, she has had an excellent schooling, in every way equal and even above that of a child living in an Indian metropolis, with state of the art equipment. She will have had a solid science training up to school cerfticate level, and I feel certain that she must "know the difference", however I shall ask her specifically this, and also what led her to choose this subject. I myself don't know what an eigenvalue is, but if it is required to pass her exams, she will have learned it. In India the juxtaposition of primitive and high-tech can be seen at every corner, so I don't think her background is a problem; Indians do extremely well in the sciences - especially in computer science - and many of them come from very poor backgrounds.

Though the idea od a girl from this background studying aeronautics impresses and tickles me, I too would have preferred if she had chosen, say, medicine or dentistry instead, or even just plain engineering, subjects she could well use to help her own community. She has been given a great deal, and children at the school have been taught responsibility and giving back to the community; it's part of the school ethos. They are very high on serving the community. I'd like to question her on this. Aeronautics does seem a little divorced from village life.

I don't think her life situation has much relevance to her ability to finish a subject she has once chosen; I think if she gets the money and is accepted for a specific course she'll do her level best. That's the message she sends my daughter in every letter to me: work hard and get the highest qualification. Education is held as the very highest good here. When the villagers were asked what they wanted most it was that: good schools for thier children. I don't think she would waste the gift of education, and I won't assume failure; but I do want her to be quite sure it's the right subject, and for her to have an inkling of what she can do with it. If she gets a well paying job in Chennai (Madras) then she'll be able to help her family, and she will, but that shouldn't be all.

Thanks for your sensible comments, and I'll be back with more information as soon as I get it.

Thank you for all your comments, suggestions,and warnings - much appreciated.

I'd like to give a bit of background. I've been visiting this area for over thiry yers, and know the Indians well. I was involved with a charitable organisation that is very active in the region, and over the years we "helpers" have learned to be very sceptical when requests for help come in. All individiual requests are thoroougly researched, the families investigted, and after a while you learn to tell the genuine cases from the scammers. On the whole, it's not a very dishonect region, perhaps because it's a very famous place of pilgrimage and the people who live there, and especially those who have had contact with the charitable organisation I mentioned, are genuinly religious.

You also kind of get to know which professions you can trust, which not. Rickshaw drivers, no. Trust employees, yes.

This girl's father has been a Trust gardener for over 30 years. The Trust is extremely strict with its employees; any evidence of wrongoing, pilfering, lysing, cheating, and they are out. I've seen them come and go over the years, and those that remain for decades, well you can be sure that they are trustworthy.

At one point in my life I was going there every year for four or five weeks; it's home to me. The people, Indians who work there, are not strangers.

Solai (her father) has always been one of my favourite gardeners; one builds relationships with these people, and gets to know them thoroughly over time.
Solai has a solid job and is a hard worker; he is not a beggar. Once, he told me that the roof to his house leaked during the rainy season, I helped him replace it. That is all.
He wrote me to thank me, and expressed the gratitude of his whole family. I think that's when his daughter Uthra first sent me a little note, of thanks.

Last year in February I was back in India after a long absence, and I met Solai again; he invited me to his home. That's when I met his wife and Uthra, and that's when Uthra first told me of her ambitions. At first she wanted to correspond with my daughter, who is two years younger, and wrote her three or four letters. My daughter soon lost interest, and stopped replying, and so as not to disappoint Uthra I wrote her instead. She has never come to me with a money request until now, and I am sure that even if I can't help she will continue to write.

So you see, I am not just a naive do-gooder, and I'd never just dole out money to a stranger. As I said, I'm going to question Uthra a lot more, find out exactly what the money is for (yearly? for the entire course?) and how much will be needed in future, where she will live, etc etc.