Pratham
Pratham, one of the largest educational nonprofits in India raised over $3.8 million at its New York Tri-State Gala on September 15 at the Cipriani Wall Street.

NEW YORK (Diya TV) — Pratham, one of the largest educational nonprofits in India raised over $3.8 million at its New York Tri-State Gala on September 15 at the Cipriani Wall Street.

Attended by approximately 600, the event raised funds for Pratham’s innovative, award-winning educational programs targeted at the underprivileged in India.

Established in the slums of Mumbai in 1995, Pratham is now one of India’s largest non-governmental education organizations, having affected the lives of more than 50 million underprivileged children in the past two decades.

Daily Show correspondent Hasan Minhaj delivered a rousing 20-minute set as the featured entertainment. Minaj talked about his upbringing and stressed the importance of “giving kids an opportunity.”

Mangala Mehar, a Pratham vocational program graduate shared the impact the organization has made on her life. Today, the 22-year-old is a senior housekeeper at a Maldives resort, earning enough to pay her father’s medical bills and send her younger brother to college.

“I had always dreamed of becoming a successful and independent woman. The Pratham course gave me something far greater than the skills to get a job at a fancy hotel. Pratham gave me the motivation and self-confidence to keep moving ahead,” said Mehar.

The evening honored Ajay Piramal, Chairman of The Piramal Group and the Pratham Education Foundation, who is stepping down from the latter position after a decade of service. In that time, the organization experienced tremendous growth, tripling in size to its current $36 million.

“This has been a very satisfying journey for me where I have learned a lot. I am most grateful to Pratham for this,” said Piramal. “We can look ahead with a lot of optimism,” he added as he reflected on how, in 22 years, Pratham has gone from a single program in a Mumbai slum to one of the most influential forces in India’s education sector.

In her speech, Pratham CEO Dr. Rukmini Banerji described the next frontier for Pratham: exploring an ed tech approach to accelerating children’s learning of foundational literacy and numeracy. She praised the significant support Pratham has received from Google and a family-based trust to experiment with digital learning and determine the optimum solution for educating India’s 100 million children who are functionally illiterate.

To support their mission “every child in school and learning well,” Pratham develops practical solutions to address gaps in the education system and works in collaboration with India’s governments, communities, educators and industry to increase learning outcomes and influence education policy.