Who We Are
Educate Girls works with the government, community and village-based volunteers called Team Balika to ensure every girl in the remotest parts of India is enrolled in school and learns well.
About Us
Established in 2007, Educate Girls’ is a non-profit that focusses on mobilising communities for girls’ education in India’s rural and educationally backward areas.
Strongly aligned with the ‘Right to Education Act’ or the ‘Samagra Siksha’, Educate Girls is committed to the Government’s vision to improve access to primary education for children, especially young girls.
Educate Girls currently operates successfully in over 20,000+ villages in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. By leveraging the Government’s existing investment in schools and by engaging with a huge base of community volunteers, Educate Girls helps to identify, enrol and retain out-of-school girls and to improve foundational skills in literacy and numeracy for all children (both girls and boys). This helps deliver measurable results to a large number of children and avoids parallel delivery of services.
GOAL
Our goal is to improve access and quality of education for over 15 million children cumulatively by 2024.
Leadership
I once met an out-of-school girl and asked her “What do you want to be?” to which she replied, “Nobody has ever asked me this question so I have never thought about it.” The same girl is now enrolled in school by Educate Girls and today she aspires to be a police officer! This is the power of education.
Safeena, a London School of Economics graduate, has worked extensively with rural and urban underserved communities in South America, Africa and Asia. After returning to India, Safeena chose the agenda closest to her heart – that of girls’ education – and founded Educate Girls.
Safeena’s efforts to bridge the gender gap in education in India have been widely recognized. She has been conferred with the 2017 NITI Aayog’s Women Transforming India Award, the 2016 NDTV-L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Award, and has in the past received the British Asian Trust’s Special Recognition Award from HRH Prince Charles for outstanding contribution in education. Moreover, Educate Girls has received the prestigious 2015 Skoll Award, 2014 WISE Award, the 2014 USAID Millennium Alliance Award, the 2014 Stars Impact Award and the India Development Marketplace Award in 2011 from the World Bank.
Under Safeena’s leadership, Educate Girls initiated the world’s first Development Impact Bond (DIB) in education, a proof of concept that ties funding to outcomes. In 2018, on its completion, the Educate Girls’ DIB surpassed both its target outcomes by achieving 160% of its learning target and 116% of its enrolment target. The results are testimony to the fact that Educate Girls continues to deliver quality at scale and value to every single child in the program.
Maharshi has 15 years of progressively responsible cross-functional experience in strategic communications, advocacy development and international development. His work experience comprises being a part of one of India’s most diversified business conglomerates, and being a part of a global communications agency, where he provided communication advisory services to Fortune 500 organizations. His last stint prior to joining Educate Girls was a Fellowship with Grameen Foundation in South-East Asia. Maharshi holds a Master of Public Policy (International Development) and a Master of Business Administration.
Senior Management Team
Board

Ganesh Natrajan (India)

Ireena Vittal (India)

Luis Miranda (India)

Safeena Husain

Sumit Bose (India)

Ujwal Thakar (India)
Thank You for your support
Aditi Thorat
Ami Parikh
Cynthia Gire
Jasmeet Kaur Srivastava
Pooja Bhatt
Pragni Kapadia
Roopa Kudva
Sarath Divella
Swati Apte
Tara Kapur
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Educate Girls is a project of Foundation To Educate Girls Globally (FEGG) | FEGG is registered in India under Section 8 of the Indian Companies Act, 2013.
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