The Lily Foundation
of
[A non-profit charitable foundation, tax exempt
under
IRS Code 501( c ) ( 3 ), Tax ID 75-2900313]
Year 2007 Annual Report
=====================================================================================
Dear
Patrons,
Let me
present to you our activities for the year 2007.
It has
been a year growth. We opened two new
computer centers, one in Hotor and one in Dhulai. We opened our first
vocational center for women in Narrah supported entirely by funds raised by
Lily (
·
Our collections have
increased by 65% over 2006.
·
10 AALO primary coaching centers serving 100 elementary
students
·
7 AALO study homes serving 160
pre-elementary students
·
An increase in AALO high
school coaching centers from 2 to 4, serving 85 high-school students.
·
An increase in the number
of SMILE scholarships from 78 to 101 high school students.
·
An increase in the number
of computer centers from one to three, now serving over 785 students.
·
A new vocational center for
women serving 15 students.
·
Our SMILE students graduated
both the Class-X and Class-XII board exams with flying colors, with over 90% of
them graduating in the 1st division.
·
Continuing cooperation with
organizations like Ronald McDonald House for children, Union Gospel Mission church
for homeless feeding, North Texas Hindu Mandir, Indian Lions Club, and
Antorik-BOGD.
·
The revamping and
streamlining of our
AALO
Centers
One of the biggest challenges facing the students from poor
families is the very high drop-out rate. Our
approach is therefore to target students from extremely poor families at
key stages of their academic life to prevent them from dropping out from
school. By providing academic support through these AALO centers we strive to
ensure that that these students do not drop-out from the schools and graduate
through the board exam.
We have 7 primary study homes in Narendrapur, Boral, Behala, Akra
and Santoshpur serving 160 pre-elementary students. Mid-day meals and monthly
health check-ups are also provided. After graduation, the students are admitted
into the Government-run schools.
We now have 10 primary coaching centers for grades 3 to 5 in
Hotor, Narendrapur, Jayrambati, Boral, Behala, Khidderpore, Suklai and
Balurghat. Here 100 primary-grade students get coaching by tutors in various
subjects. The idea is to help the students who hail from extremely poor
families by tutoring them.
We have four high school coaching centers in Dhulai, Narrah,
Midnapore and Bandel where high-school students get coaching in math, science
and language courses. Before joining the Coaching homes, these students
generally scored very poorly. After attending the homes, students demonstrated significantly
improved results in the board exam.
The vocational center in Narrah is teaching tailoring classes to
15 adult women.
Lily Foundation
Computer Centers.
Our computer center number has grown from one to three. Currently
we have centers in Ghatsila, Hotor and Dhulai teaching computer technology to
over 785 high school students. These centers are providing a valuable service
for high school students in these areas which lacks computer resources. Learning
computer skills will help these students get jobs which will allow their
families to climb out of the poverty.
Scholarships
Contd. on page2 --1--
This
is one of the most successful programs to date and our SMILE scholars routinely
graduate with first division marks year after year, a huge achievement
considering the extremely disadvantaged background of each of these students.
We have maintained our impressive growth of SMILE scholars. This year we
increase the number of scholars from 78 to 101, a growth of 29%. This comes
after a growth of 42% in 2006. Our SMILE scholarship program continues to
provide valuable support to meritorious high school students from poor families. It allows these students to graduate and
provides an opportunity for their families to come out of the vicious cycle of
poverty.
Feed The
Needy
Lily Foundation’s trademark event continues to be Feed The Needy
Luncheons which are held around the mother’s day in May and around thanksgiving
in November. These events are held at the
Fund
Raising/Publicity/Other Events
The annual fund raising dinner was held to raise funds, recognize
the contributors, and present Lily’s activities to our patrons. The art auction
and the cultural programs at the dinner event were well received.
We have been also striving to increase our cooperation with other
local organizations like Indian Association of North Texas, Indian Lions Club,
Antorik-BOGD; Bengali Association of DFW, and North Texas Hindu Mandir (NTHM).
Looking
forward
Lily Foundation is a bridge connecting your
helping hand to the people who need it the most, and your support helps in
sustaining lives of real people with real dreams and aspirations. When you
support a poor student, you not only help his immediate family, but you
ultimately support the building of the nation’s foundation by supporting the
upcoming generation, so that we can build a just, democratic and educated society.
Our teachers in the field continue to exhibit
their devotion to charity by working under difficult conditions, and the faces
of the children we serve provide us the inspiration to continue our work. So we
look forward to your continued support in the future.
We are continuously
trying to improve our operational efficiency and always welcome your feedback. The
key areas of focus for 2008 are:
a) Further strengthen our Lily India organization
b) Expand our donor base
c) Continually review our operations to ensure
that your contributions are used in the most efficient fashion while providing
the best service for our children.
d) Farther strengthen our coaching-centers for
the ‘push/pull-points’ (which are the
key class-levels to address the drop-out issue) and expand our services in the
vocational/computer education area.
I personally look forward
to meeting you at the 2008 annual dinner.
The
year-end bank balance for Lily(USA) in
Note: The
above statement was reviewed by independent accountant Raghu Bellary, K.R. Tax
services, 3012,
Yours truly,
--2--
Anirudhha Maitra, President