Safeena Husain

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

Safeena Husain is a social worker and the founder of Educate Girls, a non-profit organisation with its headquarters 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 the world’s first Development Impact Bond in education, which, upon completion in 2018, exceeded its target outcomes.[3][4]

Early life and education

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]

Work

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

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

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

  1. ^"Lessons from Educate Girls DIB are for everyone: Safeena Husain, Founder & Executive Director, Educate Girls". The Financial Express (India). 15 October 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  2. ^ abc"WomenChangeMakers' Annual Report 2012"(PDF). 14 August 2013. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 May 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  3. ^ abc"How India's First Development Impact Bond Transformed the Lives of over 7000 Rural Kids". 1 October 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  4. ^"Development impact bond results in education announced". Business Line. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  5. ^ abcdef"When girls returned to the classroom". India Today. 1 December 2014.
  6. ^ abc"Unknown facts about hansal mehta's wife, safeena husain". Siasat Daily. 25 May 2022. ProQuest 2668878553. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  7. ^Jayakumar, P.B. (8 October 2017). "Three R's for the Girl Child: Millions of girls in India are denied education as society sees them as a liability". New Delhi. Business Today.
  8. ^ abBloch, Hannah (20 June 2015). "Work in Progress: A Push to Get India's Girls Into Classrooms". Wall Street Journal.
  9. ^"Getting Girls into Education Pays off for UBS". Eastern Eye. 20 July 2018.
  10. ^"Mulago Foundation Rainer Arnhold Fellows". www.mulagofoundation.org. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  11. ^Times Now: Amazing Indians
  12. ^TEDxASB - Safeena Husain - Rejuvenating Government Schools. 3 March 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2024 – via www.youtube.com.
  13. ^"India's Safeena Hussain wins $5 lakh WISE Prize for getting 14 lakh girls back to school". The Economic Times. 3 December 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  14. ^"WISE Prize for Education". Qatar Foundation. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
  15. ^"ETPWLA 2019: Safeena Husain of Educate Girls Foundation receives 'Beyond Business' award". The Economic Times. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  16. ^"Girls Education charity India | Girl child education ngo". Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  17. ^"About the Awardee: Safeena Husain". L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Award. NDTV. 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  18. ^"Skoll | Educate Girls Foundation". Retrieved 8 April 2024.
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