Stanley Alumni Trust – A dream project

Dear Stanleans,

Having taken up the responsibility as the general warden in the year 1991, and steering through a pleasant and a memorable journey till 2013, inside the same campus where we grew as students, had given me the opportunity to live through and observe many academic, social, personal and economic aspects of hostel students life, in different dimensions, stitched together with the fibres of love, fun,  ambitions, dreams and what not. Economic logistics had been a part of life probably the backbone of students journey towards the completion and achievements of academic as well as social performances and we could observe that if not many a handful had always been looking forward for financial assistant in silence, for the successful outcome of the efforts and the preparations taken to complete the course.

Along with a few like minded friends from my batch, I started a program in 2008, which  extended financial assistance to the hostel students to pay the hostel fees. Starting with two students we ended up with more than 6 students in this sponsorship / scholarship program. This need based financial assistance program paved way to the permanent scholarship program by registering “Stanley Alumni Trust” that was inaugurated, when we organised the “Platinum Jubilee Global Alumni  Meet” in 2014, during the Platinum Jubilee year of our great institution, attended by more than 1100 Stanleans from all over the globe, at Hotel Hyatt and the hostel and  the college campus for two days, me being the President  and Dr. Muralidharan 1975 batch being the secretary of the Alumni Association. Dr. Muralidharan and myself had been conducting all Alumini related activities from 1996 to 2016.

Apart from organising the annual gathering of the Alumni on last Sunday in January. Since 1996 to 2014, including the “Global Alumini Meet 2014” during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of our great institution, students rural medical activities through R M & SS, (Rural medical and social service league which was a Pioneer project started by Dr. Kalyanaraman 1953, neurosurgeon, who was the best outgoing student in 1955) at Alamadhi, a village near Red hills near Chennai at the land and building donated to Stanley (We invited MG. Ramachandran (CM of TamilNadu) as members of college students council and celebrated silver jubilee of R M & SS. He presented a bus to the college for transportation for Rural services), 

“Green Hands Project” introduced and initially financed by the Alumni where the students were involved in growing saplings from seeds and distributing more than 1.5 lakh for free to the public, were the ongoing projects.

The Silver Jubilee auditorium was presented by Stanleans, raising funds to build it and was inaugurated by the then President Saravanapalli Radhakrishnan in 1964. It stands tall in the campus and remembered as the symbol of love of Stanleans. 

The Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1995 ended up in modifying the old examination hall to the present airconditioned and modernized “Golden Jubilee Auditorium”, which again represents the love, the affection and the commitment of the Stanleans towards our
great institution.

All great institutions throughout the world have scholarship programs of various proportions and dimensions and we decided to introduce a scholarship program as a platform in the name of ”Stanley Alumni Trust”, registered in 2013 as per Indian trust act.
Me as the founder president and Dr. Muralidharan 1975 as the secretary and seven other like minded Stanleans from 1955 batch to 2001 batch are the trustees and many Stanleans from different batches Dr. Ramanan Srinivasan 1965 US, Dr. Gnana Bhaskar 1968  Malaysia,
Dr. Gomathinayagam 1974,  are in the advisory board.

Many Stanleans from different batches were involved in the deliberations ever since 2012 to finalise all aspects of the trust activities, like the scholarships and  regarding other Rural medical Services, Disaster Management and Eco friendly programs of the trust.

During the inauguration of the trust as a token of love and affection, while celebrating the “Platinum Jubilee” of our great institution in 2014, Dr. King Viswanathan 1961 donated  Rs. 1,11,111/-, Dr. Jayakar Thomas 1970 Rs. 1 lakh, Dr. Bharathi Varadharajan 1973 Rs. 1 lakh,
Dr. Raja Sabhapathi 1972 Rs. 1 lakh, Dr. Nagarajan 1972 Rs. 1 lakh to mention a few, followed by many Stanleans and the Stanlean Spirit was evident and overwhelming.

The trust started with one scholarship in 2014 and subsequently received 12A & 80G income tax exemption for the donors. The trust now has 45 ongoing Scholarships and beneficiaries in both men and women hostel. About 25 UG students have completed their course and four students have joined there post graduation in different specialties like orthopedics, general medicine, pediatrics and many are awaiting
the results.

Many of the beneficiaries are in sports and are secretaries in hostel and college and take active participation in many more activities. Our aim is to have 100 scholarships from the trust, so that each batch has 25 students as Beneficiaries out of 250 students in a batch.

“Many flowers wither away for want of little rain in the deserts but then with little care, bloom to paint the colours of joy in life”.

There have been many individual Stanleans, batches and trusts by the Stanleans, donating to the trust to establish scholarships in their name.

An amount of Rs. 3 lakhs was transferred to the trust from the Global meet accounts after settling all accounts. Various batches from 1957, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1975 and 1976 have established scholarships in their batch name and 1965, 1971, 1974, 1981, 1986 and 1987 batches have contributed towards the Corpus fund. The efforts taken by Dr. Raghuram and Dr. Rajanikanth along with late Dr. Nalini from US in 1963 batch to collect two scholarships from their batch and Dr. Sethu Ramanathan for two more scholarships from his 1968 batch, Dr. Rangarajan 1965 batch,
Dr. Ravi Raj Williams, Dr. Raghavelu Govinda Swami, Dr. Siva Prakasam and Dr. Nallathambi 1966 batch, is laudable and amazing.

Many individual Stanleans like Dr. Durairaj 1955, Dr. Krishnan Gopal 1957, Dr. Nalla Palani Swami 1961, Dr. Joan Shresta USA 1964, Dr. Nallathambi from USA 1966 and his brothers through their family trust –  three scholarships,
Dr. Chandran from UK 1968, Dr. Ganesan Hi-Tech 1973, Dr. Deivanayagam 1957, Dr. Amaresh 1957, contributed Rs 10 lakhs each to establish scholarships in their / family names.

In the temporary yearly scholarship scheme, which was initiated by Dr Bala Kumari from 1976 batch, many Stanleans from her batch-six – and other batches including 2001 are contributing Rs 60,000/yr to meet the hostel expenses of the selected candidates.
15 such beneficiaries are receiving these scholarships.

Stanley Alumni Trust also cooperates with a few other trusts like Dr. Solomon Victor & Dr. Sunithy Solomon (Stanleans) foundation, Shooting Star foundation and a few non Stanleans, in identifying deserving students to get scholarships. More than 25 students have been the beneficiaries so far.

Basically all the expenses towards conducting the Trust meeting, the selection/interview process of the students etc. and food, stationary and other related expenses are met / sponsored by either, one of the trustees or the advisors or donors or other Stanleans. Dr. Jaffray, 1981 as the secretary is hosting all the meetings and arrange the food and stationeries and other activities of the trust in his Hospital. Only the yearly audit fees and the monthly fees to the part time clerical computer staff is paid from the bank account.

My visit to UK with Dr. Shanmuganathan 1974 as the secretary in 2017, in a weekend to attend UK Stanleans meet at Birmingham and the participation again in the US  Stanleans meet during the weekend at Florida in US in 2019, to promote the trust activities resulted in getting a few scholarships from US. Dr. Nallathambi 1966 US was instrumental to establish four US scholarships through Tamil Nadu foundation.

A contribution of Rs. 10 lakhs received from a donor is deposited in the bank, establishing a perennial scholarship in their name. The awarded scholarships are need based and the hostel fee of the selected candidate is paid from 1st year till the completion of the course. The trust has its rules and regulations in the selection, awarding and continuing these Scholarships.

The candidates for the scholarship are selected via  applications to the trust and by conducting an interview by the trustees, the advisory board and donors, by awarding marks  independently, following specific yardsticks and guidance. The hostel fee for the selected candidates are issued deducting the amount for the extras availed, to the respective wardens only, after getting the approval from the wardens and the Dean. The hostel fees is paid from the interest accrued from the fixed deposits of the Rs. 10 lakhs, in the financial institutions.

 There are many Stanleans who help these scholarship beneficiaries, by getting the Medical books and paying the college tuition fees and the university exam fees.

 The trust has introduced a new system in which the beneficiaries who have availed the scholarship from the first or second year, donate a sum of Rs.10000/- to the trust when they complete their internship, as a token of love. This money is to be used exclusively for the books, tuition fees etc. for the current beneficiaries.

During Corona period, the trust could collect about Rs 23 lakhs from Stanleans and others. Dr. Mac Rajendran from 1957 batch from Madurai played major role in the collection of funds and supervising the trust activities. The trust distributed all types of masks like N95, triple layer masks,  hand sanitizers, medicines , PPE kits, face Shields, hand gloves, etc. to more than 50 government institutions like medical colleges (Stanley, KMC, Omandoorar, KGH, IOG, Madurai, Salem, Thanjavur, Dharmapuri, Theni medical colleges),
District headquarters hospitals and primary health centres.

Dr. Ganapathi 1972 batch, Dr. Padma 1975 batch, Dr. Baskar anesthetist in KGH,  Dr. Kanakaraj 2001 batch, Dr. Castro Jayaprakash 2004 batch, Dr. Rajaganapathy 2003 batch, Dr. Chinthan and Dr. Lakshmanamurthi from 2006 batch, Dr. Chandrashekhar 1989 batch, Dr. Nivethan 2008 batch, a Stanlean in Thanjavur Medical College  are among many Stanleans who helped in the distribution of the Corona materials to the primary health centres, headquarters hospitals and various medical colleges.

The trust assisted STAANA – “Stanley Alumni Association of North America”, by financing Rs. 2.15 lakhs to procure generators and to distribute the oxygen concentrators sent from US – STAANA, to many hospitals in Tamilnadu. 

Stanleans can contact the trustees for more details and can visit ” WWW.stanleyalumnitrust.com ” and email to ” stanleyalumnitrust@gmail.com “

Coming April 2023 the trust will be completing 10 years and we are having various activities planned accordingly, mainly to reach the goal of 100 scholarships, to be available to the UG students of our great institution.

Many of the beneficiaries are talented, take part in sports and arts, college and hostel council activities. The trust encourages them to take part in academic activities like college and other medal exams, to attend local city conferences and to take up ICMR projects through the college departments.

The trustees and the advisory board members thank all Stanleans who have contributed in silence but for whom the program would not have reached where it stands now. I always believe that, The present should know the past to build its future. Stanleans had always been the pioneers in innovative projects like RM&SS, Green Hands and may charter new course of innovative platforms in the future, for the benefit of the students, the Institution and the society.

Dr. Dinakar Moses.
President. 
Stanley Alumni Trust.