Can you read this? If you cannot read, we can help you. If you can read, you can help us.

October 17, 2011
Yogi Patel, Pratham USA; Anoop Gupta, Microsoft

Microsoft has installed “Windows” through which the educated can see the beautiful colors of the world. But for millions of poor children, these “Windows” will remain shut for ever if they don’t learn to read.

India has 100 million such children who will never read. These are children of poor illiterates. Pratham, a large literacy NGO helps such children succeed in schools by teaching them basic skills of reading, writing and math. Pratham, meaning “first” in Sanskrit, started as a Unicef initiative in 1994 with 2,000 children in its community based pre-school program. By 2004, Pratham grew to serve 400,000 children in 20 cities across India. By 2010, it reached 33 million children in rural India.

There are many NGOs in education space. Pratham differs from the rest in its ability to work on scale and with government. Today, with funding from the grassroots Indian Diaspora donors in USA, UK and Canada and from the foundations like Gates, Hewlett and Google.org, Pratham has emerged as a massive education reform in India that serves as a role model for the developing countries in Africa and Asia.

Pratham’s mission is “Every Child in School in School and Learning Well”. Education is indeed the currency of future. A small investment in a child’s education early on can transform the child in to a vibrant participant in the global economy.

Join us October 17th at the Microsoft Campus to hear from Pratham USA Ambassador Yogi Patel about how Pratham aims to eradicate poverty through a massive education reform.

Speaker Details

Yogi Patel, Ambassador, Pratham USA In 1999, he co-founded Pratham USA, served as its President till 2004 and is serving since then as Pratham USA Ambassador. Over these 13 years, he has seeded many Pratham USA chapters and similar chapters in Canada, UK, and Singapore. His dedication has helped Pratham USA to be a $10 million a year organization. In Yogi, India’s needy children have found a good friend, a donor and a crusader. His own childhood is not much different than the children Pratham serves. Yogi knows what poverty means because he was raised in poverty. A good education helped him escape poverty of that village in India opening the doors to the opportunities in USA. Yogi believes in Pratham’s mission of “Every Child in School and Learning Well”. He tells Pratham’s Story with conviction and compassion. Professionally, Yogi is a chemical engineer from University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. After retiring from Chevron in 1990, he went into lodging business in Houston where he ran a large housing program for indigent patients at M D Anderson Cancer Center winning several humanitarian awards for service to families of cancer patients. In 2005, he sold his business and retired. Since then, he is nearly a full time Pratham USA volunteer.