17 Receive Basil Charles Educational Foundation Scholarships & Bursaries
On Tuesday, July 25th, 2023, the Basil Charles Educational Foundation presented scholarships and bursaries to seventeen students at a ceremony held at the Basil’s Bar in Villa.
Seven students won full scholarships, while the remaining ten received bursaries. The grantees will receive financial support from forms one through five as part of the program.
Basil Charles, founder of the Basil Charles Educational Foundation, said the foundation began nearly three decades ago when he and a friend decided to stage a Blues Festival on Mustique and St. Vincent. He stated that they had decided to utilize the event earnings to grant scholarships to economically disadvantaged kids. “Since then, we have helped children in many different ways, we took on pre-school and all the other different areas,” Charles explained. He stated that the foundation had helped nearly two thousand (2000) youngsters so far.
According to Charles, they frequently ask parents and guardians for information about their children’s financial backgrounds, and then they choose the children who they believe are the most in need, rather than just the pupils with the highest grades.
Charles explained how the EC $1500.00 scholarships are dispersed, saying that recipients receive EC$600.00 in the first school term and EC$450.00 in future terms. He stated that during the covid-19 pandemic and volcano eruptions, the organization aided displaced families by supplying mattresses and other required supplies to make their lives more pleasant. He also mentioned that they had helped preschools by providing cots and lunches for the children.
Meanwhile, Marika Baptiste, the 2016 Basil Charles Scholarship Awardee, said she is pleased of the establishment and the role it plays in assisting students in their academic growth, as well as everything that she has been able to achieve with its assistance.
The Basil Charles Education Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides critical scholarships and assistance to students in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The charity, founded in 1996 by Basil Charles, founder of Basil’s Bar Mustique, aims to make quality education available to vulnerable children from economically challenged households.
