Ritu Jha-
The American India Foundation Bay Area gala held in San Francisco showcased the achievements of women achievers and raised funds for women and girl-centric projects being implemented by the organization.
Founded in 2001, AIF is a non-profit organization committed to improving the lives of India’s underprivileged, with a special focus on women, children, and youth.
Held at the City Hall in San Francisco on Saturday, June 1, the gala was attended by over 250 people. It closed the night at a record-breaking total of $2.65 million, with the pledge drive raising over $900,000, including a $200,000 anonymous match — the highest amount ever raised during the pledge drive at any AIF gala.
“AIF works on 11 of the 17 sustainable development goals of the UN. This calls for global action that we have adopted because alleviating poverty is a complex matter. We have adopted a multi-pronged approach to improve health and education, reducing inequality and spurring economic growth. All of these are important to alleviate poverty,” said Lata Krishnan, co-chair of BOD AIF. Krishnan said AIF focuses on providing government school children with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education, and has touched over 8 million students across 25,000 government schools nationwide, half of whom are girls.
“They are tomorrow’s STEM superwomen, young girls who can dream of becoming scientists, engineers and so much more. AIF’s livelihood program leverages technology to provide vulnerable individuals knowledge, skills, and opportunities, enabling them to secure jobs and a means of earning livelihood,” Krishnan added.
As per the co-chair of BOD AIF, the organization has supported 1 million women, youth, and persons with disabilities. It aims to create 2 million sustainable life makers by 2030. AIF’s public health initiative aims to reduce maternal and child mortality in remote and impoverished areas of India. “AIF is well on its way to cutting newborn mortality by 50%. AIF dares to dream so big because we are a self-implementing organization with around 1800 employees on the ground in India,” she added. The design of programs, their execution, and all other aspects is done by the organization itself.
Nishant Pandey, CEO of AIF, hailed the West Coast and the Bay Area gala as the most generous.
The theme of the gala was women’s empowerment, and Pandey spoke about his role model, his mother, who got married early, but went on to achieve multiple higher educational degrees after her marriage. “Sometimes we don’t realize that we have role models within our families. We often take our parents and siblings for granted. There are so many inspiring stories within our closed circles.”
AIF focuses on girls’ education, and STEM education for girls. Pandey said the AIF wants to bridge the digital divide and the gender divide. He pointed at the small number of women in leadership roles in STEM careers and said that the AIF is looking to change that trend. “We have set up 34 STEM Innovations and Learning Centers (SILC) in government schools. Our goal is to set up 100 such centers to provide a very tangible and practical project-based, learning-based platform for children in government high schools to impart STEM education. So far, we have served 25,000 government schools, but the SILC centers have been set up in 34.”
AIF is implementing the SILC project in collaboration with the government. Pandey said the government gives them two, or three rooms in a school, which helps with the finances by not having to spend on infrastructure. The SILC is set up within government schools. Then the government teachers are trained on how to run the STEM centers. However, there’s one challenge that the AIF is fighting now. “The only challenge is funding. If we had more money, we would set up more centers. That’s why we raise money through galas so that we can do more of this work,” Pandey said.
AIF starts its digital equalizer program in grade six. SILC is a part of the digital equalizer program that started two years ago at government schools in India. With an objective to encourage more girls to take up STEM, AIF introduces the students to drones, robots, et al. to generate interest. Pandey said that women and girls form the focus of AIF’s work. “In our health work, we focus on anemia prevention and treatment. We talk about sanitary pads and the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent girls and maternal health. In education, we talk about STEM for girls’ livelihoods program, skill building and entrepreneurship development for women.”
Following the Covid-induced pandemic, the AIF’s focus on women’s and girls’ programs intensified. However, it hasn’t come at the cost of exclusion of men and boys. “The main trigger came in 2021 when the World Bank released a report that said the female labor force participation rate in India dipped below 20% after Covid. That made India the lowest in both South Asia and all emerging economies. That was a big trigger for us. We want to ensure that more women are equipped with the education and skills needed to enter the workforce, and contribute to India’s development,” he added.
Honor for women achievers
The AIF gala this year honored two women for their remarkable leadership — Revathi Advaithi, CEO of Flex, and Aparna Bawa, COO of Zoom.
Aparna Bawa, a long-time supporter of AIF, told Indica, “I love coming together to do good in India. AIF has reach and access that we as individuals may not. I’m very enthusiastic and love this idea of focusing on girls and women and empowering girls and women. And I am super excited that they focus on this, this year, and I look forward to supporting them in the years to come.”
She said the organization should ensure those not attending the IITs and elite institutions are not left behind. She urged the AIF to find ways to uplift the entire population, not just the technology aficionado, but also people from disparate occupations, especially women and girls.
Recounting her experiences, Bawa spoke about the impact of education on her life. “My parents have been focused on education from the day I was born. I don’t remember it being any different throughout my life,” she said. This helped her to value learning, grow and evolve. She, in turn, constantly educated herself. “We need to teach girls that there are no limits to what they can achieve. There is nothing that only girls can do while boys do other things. They can do anything they want to do,” she said. She also said that role models can be found in everyday human beings, as everyone is capable of teaching something to help us become better.
The other honoree, Revathi Advaithi said she felt excited to get the award because the event was all about women. “I was asked to talk about the future of women and leadership roles, it’s a hot topic. It’s one I’m passionate about. I was happy to really put my case forward for why we should do more,” Advaithi told Indica. “The most important thing for any girl is she should be able to go to school to get an education.”
When asked about the challenges women face in the corporate world, she said, “There are biases that do not help women today. We continue to fight biases like gender inequality. There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
The gala brought in venture capitalists to entrepreneurs to support the cause.
Sumir Chadha, co-founder & managing director, of WestBridge Capital Partners on the reason behind supporting AIF said it offers, “Great governance and wonderful impact.”
Prem Jain, CEO and Co-Founder of Pensando Systems, who returned to the AIF gala after 10 years, felt nostalgic. Jain found his neighbor, who lived three houses down. Jain said he will try to attend at least one AIF gala because it supports, ‘education to underprivileged children’, and also to meet old friends and network.
