Grants to students range from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 100,000 per year, depending on the type of degree and whether or not the student can live at home. Grants cover all college fees, books, and living expenses away from home. At the current exchange rate, this comes to $100 to $1000 per year.
A bigger bargain is hard to imagine.
We find qualified applicants through organizations and individuals working in rural areas of Nepal. Usually we get more than 150 applications and fund about 30 new students each year along with 30 continuing students. To apply, a girl must fill out a written application
and provide a copy of her SLC pass results, along with a written recommendation from one teacher and one community member who knows her and her family’s financial condition.
Once an applicant has been accepted, she must get admission to a college and open a bank account, and we then send her funds on a quarterly basis. She is required to return a receipt form and to send letters detailing her studies, and she must perform 50 hours of community service during each year of her scholarship. She must also send her results (grades) and receipts from payment of school fees.
Manakamana Fund supports girls from all over Nepal, and we practice affirmative action, giving preference to girls from Dalit (formerly called low-caste) communities and from parts of the country where few girls attend school (particularly the Far West and the high mountain areas). Most of the colleges are outside of Kathmandu, because the girls are more likely to return to their villages to work if they don’t come to Kathmandu, and because both education and living expenses are less costly outside of the city.
Please read about our past scholarship recipients from 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2009, 2008 and 2007.
