Support for students with financial difficulties
As we are going through a very tough time, I understand that a lot of our students might be facing financial difficultues.
This is important because there are hundreds of students living here with a very tight budget, and who depend on part time jobs for their survival. Often, those part time jobs are not even declared.
I have seen students living with 50 euros for a full month of food, under normal circumstances. With Corona, situation of those students can only worsen. I feel that unless we can stand up as a society for them, we are going towards a situation when many will starve for days.
Step I
Students who are facing financial difficulties, will subscribe to a list. For this, you login to this website, go to your update profile page, at then check the check box "I need financial assistance during Corona" at the bottom. Once you hit the Update button, you will be added to a list. Click here to update.
If the above links do not work, please type this in the address bar of your browser : https://www.indiansinfrance.com/profile and scroll down to the bottom to get the checkbox.
This list will give a clear idea about the number of students who may be needing financial assistance. Please note that filling up this form can not guarantee a finacial aid, and helps working for that.
Please check your profile page, to make sure that you have given all the right information. Because your ID will be asked before you get any financial assistance, and giving wrong information may be a ground for disqualifying you from the list.
Step II
We will collect fund from donators at this stage. An article asking for donations has been made and published here.
Step III
If we are able to collect any money, listed people will be asked to send your ID card, residence proof and bank statements of last 3 months, to figure out who are really in need of help.
To upload your documents, please click here. After uploading your documents, please check again and verify if you can find your uploaded documents. You can upload PDF, Excel, PNG or JPEG files. If you are uploading your RIB as an image, please write down your account number / iban etc in the text message.
Step IV
Collected money will then be shared with the students who are selected through the above method. A very small amount may be kept for administrative purposes if required.
Money will be shared over 3 months. Means, if we have 500 students needing financial assistance, and since we are giving 50 euros per student per month, we will need 1500 * 50 = 75,000 euros for the project.
Step V
The final list of people who are chosen for help, will then be shared with the donators, if they want to cross check.
All donators name will be publically shared and thanked, unless they opt out from this.
Further details on this will be updated on this with time. People who are recently graduate, and have not got a job yet, can also register through this process.
Once you have registered, share this page with your friends, as the time is tough and it is important that everyone comes to know about this project.
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UPDATE ON 05.05.2020: I had a slip of tongue on this video which I wish to correct here. We did not initiate a discussion with the MEA on an evacualtion plan of our own, but we were discussing with team members on how to initiate that, and were working towards that.
Besidies, regarding the subject of this article, we are between the 3rd and 4th step now. If you want to register, please follow the instructions. We have collected close to 12,000 euros which will be distributed to the students.
UPDATE ON 15.05.2020: Distribution of fund started today. I got late as the bank account is new and the virement option was not working. The bank took a long time to fix it and I had to go through their service technique. The following is after the first days distribution, relief money was sent to 15 from our list.
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Sourav Choudhury is a social entrepreneur living in France since 2003 and working for the cause of Indian community of France, since 2007. He is founder of multiple projects: the largest social network of the Indian community of France, a French language school for english speaking expatriates, this website, and few other projects.