Key Highlights
- First Indian NGO to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
- Over two million girls enrolled and retained across more than 30,000 villages.
- Pioneered the world’s first Development Impact Bond, linking investors to measurable outcomes.
- Launched Pragati, an open‑schooling scheme now serving 31,500 learners aged 15 to 29.
- Recognised for dismantling cultural stereotypes and empowering girls with skills, courage, and agency.
Detailed Insights
Founded in 2007 as the Foundation to Educate Girls Globally, the organisation emerged from Safeena Husain’s conviction that every girl child in India should attain schooling. After leaving a successful corporate career in San Francisco, Husain returned to Rajasthan, identifying desert villages where resistance to girls’ education was greatest. From these roots, the NGO built a grassroots model that grew to encompass more than 30,000 villages, enrolling and retaining over two million girls – a retention rate that routinely exceeds ninety percent.
In 2015, Educate Girls introduced the Development Impact Bond (DIB), the first of its kind in the education sector. Investors provide capital upfront and receive returns only when predefined learning outcomes are achieved, effectively externalising risk while catalysing scalable interventions. The DIB attracted international attention and served as a blueprint for other social enterprises.
Addressing the educational needs of adolescent girls and young women, the organisation launched Pragati, an open‑schooling programme that now hosts 31,500 learners between the ages of fifteen and twenty‑nine. The initiative offers flexible learning pathways, enabling participants to resume studies and pursue better life opportunities.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation recognised Educate Girls for its sustained commitment to eradicating cultural stereotyping and illiteracy, and for infusing girls with the skills, courage, and agency required to realise their full human potential. The award underscores the transformative impact of community‑driven models and innovative financing in fostering lasting social change.