MESCO (MODERN EDUCATIONAL SOCIAL & CULTURAL ORGANIZATION) & MES (MESCO EDUCATION SOCIETY) MESCO was set up in 1968 by a group of 7 classmates. The common meeting point was doing some good for the less fortunate. Not one of them had the faintest idea that this small endeavor would synergize into a passion over four decades. Three of the founding members are still a part of the present group of twelve Trustees of MESCO (2 of the founders are no more, but served the cause till their end.) MESCO started its service by loaning out text-books to a handful of school and then college students, also assisting people for various basic survival issues. The Organization was registered and started functioning as a proper NGO with three thrust areas namely, Education, Medical Services and Poverty Relief. After a decade it was decided that apart from providing financial assistance to students we need to be a service provider, for which a separate Trust in the form of MESCO Education Society (MES) was registered in 1977. To begin with, the target was to set up a quality school. Today all institutional activities are undertaken under the aegis of MES. MESCO has an extensive scholarship programme and provides scholarships to almost 1700 students (1100 school,550 post school and 50 to students doing vocational/trade courses) on purely means basis and another 330 gift scholarships to meritorious(school/college) students amongst the means deprived, as also 200 interest-free Loan scholarships to students doing professional courses. It has spent almost 1.75 crores this year on these scholarships. Towards its second objective -that of Medical services, MESCO has three Mobile Clinics which together diagnose and treat almost 250 patients daily in 12 slum areas. In addition it provides financial assistance to poor patients undergoing expensive treatment such as dialysis, heart surgeries etc. , for diagnostic procedures besides such as CT scan, MRI etc as also for prosthesis. MESCO spends over 30 lacs annually for financial assistance provided to more than 300 patients annually. Yet another thrust area for MESCO is Poverty Relief. A dry ration is provided to 240 families living in abject poverty. In addition MESCO also provides 50 Sewing machines annually (mostly to women living in slums) as a means of earning their livelihood. Clothes are also given out every year to almost 3000 families. MES (MESCO Education Society) conducts institutionalized educational activities .This includes 15 Nursery Schools in slum locales, catering to a total of 541 students and an English medium high School (Crescent English High School) that was set up in 1993 at Kausa, Thane (district). Four batches beginning 2006 have completed their SSC all with 100% results (the topper scaling new heights each year -the one in 2009 scoring 92 %). In addition MES runs vocational training centres in Dharavi and Mumbra, run in collaboration with Father Agnel. One year long electrician and beautician courses are conducted and beginning next academic year garment manufacture too. The 2 Centres totally serve over 300 students. MESCO as well as MESCO Education Society have common trustees and both are registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860 and Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950. Donations made to both the Trusts get exemption under 80 G of the Income-Tax Act. Both Trusts have registration under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 1976, which enables donors to remit their donation in foreign currency. Both MESCO and MESCO Education Society are supported by voluntary donations from individuals (families) ,corpus donors as well as from Charities and Foundations from India and abroad. Many of its beneficiaries in different schemes and also nursery schools are sponsored. MESCO receives zakat and also raises funds from sale of old newspapers collected from over 2000 households each month. MESCO however runs a hand to mouth existence which can be very stressful. Another Rs 3 cr to complete the Crescent new school building is required urgently before the next academic year. Building a Rs 100 cr corpus fund is a target for the near future.
Zahid Shaikh 
--- On Thu, 6/3/10, Aasim Khan <kkhanasim@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Aasim Khan <kkhanasim@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [AMP-INDIA:833] Re: Points to ponder
To: ampf@googlegroups.com
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010, 1:26 PM
I too agree with you Asim, as it is the solution provided by Allah for taking care of the weaker section of society, then its the only way out for us. We have to see how we can achieve it, but there is a difference between donations and Zakath. The person has to clear that he/she is giving Zakat/Sadaka/Hadiya. These 3 have different meanings. Zakat can only be given to the ppl who qualify the criteria. Sadka to any needy. Hadiya to all. There are organization working in this regards as well, I know one in AP. Which collects Zakat and uses it to sponsor students of ppl who are need of Zakat and thus when they pass out the family is out of poverty. This way they are enabling the few ppl a yr, but those few are coming out of Zakat criteria in fews yrs ahead and are leaving a good life.
On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 1:00 PM, Asim <asimhabeeb@gmail.com> wrote: As salaam o alaikum
It was just a suggestion i made, but i do feel that it is necessary to
have an organization which will collect zakath in a professional and
organized manner. I believe that if Zakath is collected and
distributed in an organized manner amongst the needy then within a
couple of years we would be able to wipe out poverty amongst muslims.
Please see this link for a study about Zakath donations in india.
http://www.aicmeu.org/Zakat_And_Economic_Empowerment.htm
Thank you.
On Jun 1, 4:14 pm, Noaman Ahmed < noaman...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Assalamolalaikum , > > Thanks for the reply. > > I received couple of replies to my suggestion which made me feel that I was not able to convey the message correctly or people missed the point I wanted to convey. > > Everything depends on "Intention". Even if others get to know about any act of charity done by us it is perfectly fine as long as it is not done with the intention of showing off. In some cases people get encouraged to give more in Charity when they come to know about it.So it does more good than bad. > > It is a common observation that majority of zakah is given during the holy month of Ramzaan and it has little or no impact on the life of those who receive it; as maximum amount is spent in buying clothes/ and Eid celebrations. > > There is no denying the fact that a lot of charity is being given but due to not so organized way of collection and distribution the impact is lost and it fails to change life of those who receive it. We keep getting ad-hoc request to help poor patients admitted into hospitals / for education / marriage etc etc and if we form an organization that collects large amounts and then distributes it then we can affect many more people. > > Tax rebate for charity should not be confused with tax "Evasion". More and more people would like to be part of such initiative if they get some incentive. It is up to the individual what he / she wants to do with the tax rebate want to keep to self or give again to the needy. > > Another benefit of forming a charitable organization is transparency as they have to get audited and show proof of how the amount given was used. It is better than give it to some fake organization which does little good with the amount collected. > > Charity is encouraged in Islam but Chritians have championed the art of managing the charitable organizations. So much so that even Bill Gates the richest of them all is now into full time charity. > > Hope this helps in clarifying some doubts. > > Nauman > > It is a pity that despite such a large muslim population we don't have many such organizations. >
>
> From: Asim <asimhab...@gmail.com>
> Subject: [AMP-INDIA:810] Re: Points to ponder > To: "AMP - INDIA" < ampf@googlegroups.com> > Date: Tuesday, June 1, 2010, 2:12 PM > > As salaam o alaikum > > The idea by brother noaman is a very good one indeed. > But jus wondering. Islam encourages us to give charity. and it > encourages it in such a manner that when we give from the right hand, > the left hand must not come to know of it. with such traditions - how > good will it be if we are going to use our charity to gain benifits by > way of tax deduction. > > Thank you and Regards. > > On May 23, 6:28 am, Noaman Ahmed < noaman...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > Assalamolaikum, > > > New Education Year is about to start in June first / second week. This is the time of the year when most of the muslim parents have to spend money for buying school supplies / uniforms / admission / tution fees etc. > > > In Maharashtra government or government aided schools take care of books and uniform in some cases for girls but in rest of India the situation is different. It would be great if we can keep aside some funds from either Zakah or regular charity for the cause of education. Even if we manage to save 1 student for getting dropped out of school due to lack of funds then it would be of great help. Right to Education bill can't be successful until each one of us do our bit to ensure education to our future generation(s). >
> > > > NGOs like CRY / FEED etc are doing a great job for childrens and their education but the issue is they collect the donated amount and then distribute it among those whom they want to give and we as a donor have no say. This means donations made to these organizations are at the cost of the charity / help that we offer to those whom we know in person. If we make an NGO which will collect money and give it to the beneficiary that we want and in turn give us a reciept with valid tax id that can be used for tax exemption then it would be great. The donor will get tax rebate / the NGO will be able to mobalize significant amount of funds and beneficiaries will remain same. > > > > For exampe : I give 12000 Per annum to my uncle for the education of his kids. Now I don't get any tax exemption for this. But if I route the same 12000 INR thru some NGO which will collect the money from me give me a reciept and then give the same amount to the very same uncle of mine then I would be able to avail for the tax rebate. > > > > Now this whole excercise is not meant to be done so that we can avail tax rebates of whatever little amount we give. THe purpose is to attract large number of muslims / non muslims towards this organization and collect the significant amount and then spend it wisely for benifiting those who need it. > > > > I don't know whom to approach and what needs to be done to get such orgnization approved and get in action. In case anyone can help me then it would be of great help. If you know someone else offering the same service then that is fine too. In US of A almost all masjid / madrasaas are registered like this and any amount donated to them qualifies for tax rebates. We need to emulate same model in India. > > > > If any brother wants to talk to me then can reply only to me and insha Allah we will take this forward. > > > > Allah Hafiz, > > > > Nauman > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AMP - INDIA" group. > > To post to this group, send email to ampf@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to ampf+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. > > For more options, visit this group athttp:// groups.google.com/group/ampf?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AMP - INDIA" group. > To post to this group, send email to ampf@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to ampf+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group athttp:// groups.google.com/group/ampf?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AMP - INDIA" group. To post to this group, send email to ampf@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to ampf+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ampf?hl=en. -- Regards, Aasim -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AMP - INDIA" group. To post to this group, send email to ampf@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to ampf+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ampf?hl=en.
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