Sub:
Appeal for Financial Assistance for Maintenance, Education and Training of 100 Higher Secondary passed young unmarried girls from economically backward families free of all charges irrespective of Caste, Creed and Religion.

The School of Nursing is a wing of Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, a branch centre of Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Howrah. It has a residential capacity to educate and train 250 young unmarried girls in the age group of 18-27 years. The problem of employment for young girls with only H.S. level of education in our country is well-known. The difficulty they face to meet even the bare necessities of life cannot be overemphasized. With a view to enabling them to stand on their own feet, both socially and economically, the Pratishthan has been running its School of Nursing.

At present a newly recruited GNM passed nursing staff receives a gross monthly salary of over Rs. 2,500/- here. Besides our own needs, there is a great demand for such trained nurses in the State and Central Government Hospitals as also in private Hospitals and Nursing Homes with respectable salary and other facilities. Immediate employment is thus assured upon satisfactory completion of the course.

Those students who are maintained mostly by Government grants are generally required to be released for services in Government Hospitals on demand from the Government. Therefore, to maintain and improve the quality of nursing care of the patients of this hospital serving nearly 4 lakh of people every year coming mostly from poor and economically backward families, we also need the services of nearly 100 such qualified staff nurses in phases on a continuing basis who will be educated by the Pratishthan exclusively at its own cost and will be readily available for absorption here according to the need of the Hospital including its Family Welfare and Rural Health Centres.

These girls will be selected mainly from low income families having aptitude for the profession and endowed with a spirit of dedication to the service of the sick in the light of the ideals of the Ramakrishna Mission as preached and propounded by Sri Ramakrishna - Vivekananda. Efforts are made to train up the girls in India's traditional atmosphere of morality and spirituality with modern education of medical-cum-nursing science.

To train a resident girl we need to spend Rs. 16,000/- (approx) for food, stipend, stationery etc. in the first year and total of about Rs. 50,000/- in her 3-year training period at the present price level. Over and above this expenditure, we have to incur considerable expenditure regularly for water supply and maintenance of the School and Hostel building. Therefore, the need for creating a permanent fund of Rs. 125 lakh gradually to meet our objectives is being keenly felt. Since in the present unsound financial condition of this Pratishthan, it is beyond our means to implement this programme on our own, we appeal to our generous countrymen, Business and Industrial Houses and Charitable Trusts to come forward to help us in this noble cause. They may consider to make one-time donation of Rs. 1,50,000/- to be held invested in a Permanent Fund to be named as per their desire and one girl student shall be trained with the interest income received therefrom on a continuing basis. Cheques / Drafts / M.O.s of any amount, may kindly be sent in favour of "Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan A/c. S.O.N." which will be most thankfully accepted and gratefully acknowledged by the undersigned. All such donations are exempt u/s 80-G of I.T.Act 1961.