Lila Poonawalla Foundation welcomes New Lila Juniors in the Family Over 300 scholarships awarded to School girls
Pune 9th July, 2018: The Lila Poonawalla Foundation is an Educational Trust in India whose vision is to contribute to the empowerment of Indian women by supporting academically outstanding and financially deserving girls, through scholarship to pursue higher education. Since its inception in 1996, over 17765 scholarships have been granted to 7396 deserving girls.
Today over 300 school girls were granted scholarships at the 8th School Scholarship Award ceremony which was held at the Cummins auditorium, Balewadi.
The function began with watering a sapling which was done at the hands of Padmashree Lila Poonawalla, Mr. Firoz Poonawalla, Dr. Sarika Deore (Chief Guest and Lila Fellow 2001 and Peace Ambassador 2009) and Mrs. Shivani Naik Shah (Mrs. India Queen of Substance 2018) as the Guest of Honor.
Padmashree Lila Poonawalla in her welcome speech said, “instead of saving money for the dowry of daughters, parents should spend on her education and enable her to earn her livelihood and support her family throughout her life.”
Dr. Sarika Deore, who herself was a Lila Fellow received a scholarship to pursue her studies to become a doctor. She is a successful gynecologist now and has two hospitals of her own. She presented the foundation a humble token of Rs.21,000/- as gratitude.
The scholarships awarded by the Lila Poonawalla Foundation are outright grants which includes school bags, cycles, shoes and books. Special counseling sessions are conducted for the awardees and in addition their parents are also mentored so that all conflicts are resolved and girls will sail through their education. The scholarship is for a period of 10 years from 7th standard to their graduation.
The foundation gives Scholarships to the girls from Pune, Amaravati and Wardha district. In Pune district LPF supports girls from school level until post graduation. In Amaravati and Wardha district scholarships are given for undergraduate studies. LPF scholarships are merit-cum-need based scholarships. The highlight of the foundation is that it gives an outright grant to all the girls who are selected by the foundation Trustees.
