4. Safeena Husain, Founder & Director, Educate Girls
A Non-Profit Organization associated with the Government and several other organizations works to develop the education quality in the country and provides education to girls from rural and remote areas, especially girls from less privileged families. Safeena Husain is the Founder and Director of Educate Girls which strongly emphasizes on ‘Right to Education Act’ and believes in the ideology of ‘Samagra Siksha’.
Being an alumnus of the London School of Economics, after returning to India she realized that though there are many programs designed by the government to provide standard education but still many girls are unable to get the education. And many are unable to complete their schooling due to many reasons such as family financial conditions or lack of resources. To work on this project of providing quality education to the girls who belong to rural areas or downward families, Safeena, who played an important role in women’s education, established Educate Girls in 2007. Currently, Educate Girls is successfully working in more than 14,000 villages in India and Development Impact Bond (DIB) an educational initiative started by Educate Girls and headed by Safeena holds the pride of being the world’s first initiative that has effectively fulfilled and achieved its aim. Under this program Educate Girls along with CIFF and UBSOF launched a three-year plan with an MoU with the Government of Rajasthan, in which 160 percent of the final learning target was achieved and 768 girls were identified who were unable to get their schooling and under this program, such girls were enrolled in the schools.
By identifying her contributions towards the development of the education sector and building educational opportunities for the girls who are willing to study, Safeena was awarded ‘Women Transforming India’ by NITI Aayog in 2017. Also, she received the British Asian Trust’s Special Recognition Award from HRH Prince Charles. The Educate Girl has received several recognitions and has achieved many milestones; some of the major awards are India Development Marketplace Award in 2011 by the World Bank, 2014 Stars Impact, 2014 USAID Millennium Alliance Award, 2014 WISE Award, and 2015 Skoll Award.
