It is said that education can open the path to opportunity and change lives for the better. I discovered the truth of this first hand when I was young.

I grew up as the son of an impoverished and much persecuted widow on a small farm in rural South India. Because my mother was very poor, she could send only one of her two sons to school. That son was my older brother, George. I had to stay home to cultivate the land and care for our few chickens and cattle. At first, I didnt mind and stayed home for two years looking after the land and livestock. Then I realised that I had made a terrible mistake.

Fortunately for me, The Baptist Mission society opened an English Middle School in our village. They were looking for students and this was my opportunity to persuade mother to send me to school. Even though the school was about a mile away, I promised to look after all the work at home before going to school, and run home during the one hour lunch break to look after watering and grazing of our cattle.

I pestered mother until she relented and, with great personal sacrifice, she sent me to the local village school,

After I finished middle school, I had to go to the high school six miles from home. There was no road from our village to the school. So every day I had to walk those 12 miles barefoot through gullies and unpaved footpaths studded with razor-sharp granite stones. When I came home, I had to attend to the livestock and other chores before I could study by our kerosene lamp when we were fortunate enough to afford the fuel.

My prospect for a high school education was bleak but fortune favoured me. The State of Travancore decided to grant a scholarship to one student from each district. I wrote this competitive exam and, by the Grace of God, I won the scholarship. Thus, I was able to continue my high school studies. With this scholarship, I was able to go to Madras during the vacation.. While there I obtained admission to the Madras Veterinary College. During my college years in Madras, I was able to pay the college fees and support myself and my family with the small income I received from daily extracurricular visits to many households to treat sick animals.

In due time, I became a veterinarian and held many government posts in India, Sri Lanka, and finally Canada where I took a post graduate degree in microbiology and became a pathologist and research scientist.

As is often the case for Indians living abroad, I received letters from neighbours, friends, and even strangers requesting financial aid. I could not refuse their pathetic appeals and I succumbed. It was incumbent upon me to help so I did.

Recalling my own experience of winning a scholarship and thereby having a chance to pursue my studies and a better life, I decided that the best way to help the poor in the villages was to provide scholarships. God had blessed me with modest prosperity so, with the resources I had saved through careful management and investment, I set up a fund the motto of which is escape from poverty through education.

This fund offers scholarships to bright students of poor parents, of coolies, rubber tappers, destitute widows, field hands, etc.

With the knowledge and skills these students gain, they obtain employment, are able to support their parents, and improve their community.

The only stipulation is that the student should have good marks and come from a poor family. Sometimes students from very poor families have to help their parents to find their daily bread and do not get enough time to study. Under such circumstances I slightly relax the rules and exceptions are made based on the applicants background.

If the area is still rural, students may still have to walk many kilometres to school, returning home in the evening to do their chores and study by kerosene lamp. Books, pens and study materials may be beyond their parent=s ability to buy.

Poverty makes one prone to illness in an area where disease and malnutrition thrive. Many father=s desert their families and a deserted or widowed mother may have no means to support her family. Her children may be in an orphanage without the emotional support of a family. All these factors can affect the ability to study and are taken into consideration.

Therefore, the student is requested to submit a short biographical profile outlining the family=s circumstances along with the other documentation; a copy of marks obtained on the school -leaving certificate, proof of income, and a letter from a priest, doctor, or community official to verify the applicant=s statements. This package of documents is taken to the fund=s local agent who interviews the applicant and visits the student in his/her home. The agent sends all the applications to Canada where they are further evaluated by a committee of the Scholarship Fund and approved or disapproved based on the merit of each case.

So far, during the last 10 years, till the end of 2006, the fund has sponsored more than 800 students - Hindu, Muslim, and Christian - to study in a variety of fields ranging from auto mechanics to zoology. These young men and women can go on to make a difference in their world and maybe even ours.

Each of us is able to make a difference. Find one small niche where our talents or resources can make life better for others. If we all do this, the world will change.

Dr. Simon is a retired research scientist and philanthropist. Visit his website at http://simonsecret.org