A small group of Filipino students in America met with me. They were doing their Masters course at the USC. They wanted to do something for their fellow-citizens in the villages of Philippines. They met with the EdVantage Foundation, a foundation that was co-founded by me. Incidentally, the EdVantage Foundation provides opportunities for Indian students to study in the US.

After several meetings over coffee, we decided on the following:

1) We would target the middle school segment in Philippines.

2) We would work on a model school in Polomolok Village.

3) We have since appointed a school teacher, Miss Luna Siosson, to be the Coordinator.

4) With her help, we identified 55 students, who would be supported financially - the criterial for selection would be based on a combination of "merit" and lack of "means".

5) Inital funds were raised from US citizens of Filipino origin - it is one form of giving back for them.

6) Luna's job was to provide access to education to the selected students. The US-based Filipino students would provide them access to learning resources, besides one-to-one attention in the form of counseling services.

The model was officially started in November 2006 and it has now been decided to grow this model in Philippines, besides launching the same in Tanzania - we chose Tanzania because of the willingness of a group of US citizens of Tanzanian origin!

Suggestions are invited on how:

* to take this model to other parts of the world

* to make this model more effective

Please feel free to write to amaranj@gmail.com