Safeena Husain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Safeena Husain
Safeena Husain with her husband Hansal Mehta
Born (1971-01-21) 21 January 1971 (age 55)
Delhi, India
Spouse
​
(m. 2022)​
Children2 daughters
FatherYusuf Hussain

Safeena Husain is a social worker and founder of Educate Girls – a non-profit organisation that is headquartered in Mumbai, India. It focusses on mobilising communities for girls’ education in India’s rural and educationally backward areas.[1][2] Under her leadership, Educate Girls’ launched world’s first Development Impact Bond in education which on its completion in 2018 surpassed both its target outcomes.[3][4]

Career

[edit | edit source]

Husain worked in San Francisco as the Executive Director for Child Family Health International from 1998-2004.[5] Prior to her role in San Francisco she graduated from the London School of Economics.[6]

Educate Girls

[edit | edit source]

Husain moved to Mumbai in 2005 where she began working on what would become Educate Girls.[2]: 7 [5] Educate Girls was founded in 2007.[7] She pointed to surveys indicating India was the worst G20 country to be born a woman in as demonstration for India's need for a large scale NGO focused on gender equity in education. There were no such organizations, to her satisfaction, in India at the time.[5] She initially focused on working with the Ministry of Education in partnering with schools in Pali and Jalore which had the worst education gender gaps at the time.[5][8] Husain subsequently contacted Pratham and UNICEF to learn best practices. She focused on being the strongest presence in a focused community and encouraging community participation. This strategy led to the creation of, Team Balika, a volunteer organization with thousands of members.[5][8] Their goal is to find out of school girls and encourage them to re-enroll. Husain has highlighted Educate Girls effort to work with the education system and improve it rather than working against the system.[5] Educate girls embodied this idea by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the government to replicate the organizations model at 2,083 schools in Jalore.[2]: 8 

Educate Girls work from 2015-2018 was partially funded by the world's first education related Development Impact Bond. Husain lauded this model because resulted based financing allowed Educate Girls to be innovative in their practices.[9][3] The program surpassed all its targets for the bond payouts.[3]

Recognition & Awards

[edit | edit source]

She is a Rainer Arnhold Fellow[10] and Times Now "Amazing Indian".[11] Husain featured as a speaker at a TEDxASB event on the subject of "Rejuvenating Government Schools in India for Girls' Education".[12][6] In 2014 and 2023, Husain won the WISE prize. WISE is an award from Qatar for outstanding impact in education. The 2023 award came with $500,000 for Educatate Girls.[13][14]

  • ET Prime Women Leadership Award 2019[15]
  • Winner NITI Aayog Women Transforming India Award 2017[16]
  • Winner NDTV-L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Award 2016[17]
  • Winner 2015 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship - April 2015[18]

Personal life

[edit | edit source]

Safeena Husain was married to Hansal Mehta in 2022 after 17 years together. She had two daughters with him prior to marriage. Their names are Kimaya Mehta and Rehana Mehta.[6]

References

[edit | edit source]
  1. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  2. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ^ a b c d e f Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  8. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  9. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  10. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  11. ^ Times Now: Amazing Indians
  12. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  13. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  14. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  15. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  16. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  17. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  18. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

Lua error in Module:Authority_control at line 153: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

Retrieved from "http://70.231.62.181/index.php?title=Safeena_Husain&oldid=20684067"