Category Archives: Founder Stories

Sankar Haldar (Mukti)

Sankar grew up in a poor household in the rural Sundarbans in the delta of the Bay of Bengal. Situated a few hours south of Kolkata, this coastal region is tremendously affected by global climate change and periodically devastated by fierce cyclones. An intelligent student, Sankar was admitted to an excellent engineering college but was at the brink of dropping out because he could not afford the tuition. A kind gentleman intervened by paying his tuition fees. After Sankar graduated, he went back to repay the loan, which the benefactor refused. Instead, he asked Sankar to pay it forward by helping others in the locality to succeed. This inspired Sankar to establish ‘Mukti’ (Bengali: freedom) in 2003.

In the Sundarbans now, Sankar and Mukti have become synonymous with the spirit of giving and their dedication to making life better for the underserved. Mukti has assisted over a million people through three catastrophic super cyclones. It has constructed 20,000+ toilets, helped 8000+ farmers shift to organic farming, and assisted 25,000+ women to start with micro-banking. Additionally, it has secured educational scholarships for 1800+ students.

Multiple national and international awards later, Sankar continues to focus on finding innovative, capital-efficient ways to increase the impact of Mukti’s work. He visualizes and is determined to achieve 10x growth across all Mukti’s programs over the next few years.

Vinita Saraf & Namrata Sureka (Ek Tara)

In 2011, the co-founders of Ek Tara, Vinita and Namrata, began to work in the largest and poorest slum of Eastern India, armed with a keen desire to educate first generational learners. They were convinced that the city’s most vulnerable communities would flourish if girls and women were equipped to drive change in their own lives, families, and communities.

They registered the organization in 2015. Over the past few years, Ek Tara has come a long way from just 30 to the current strength of 900 children and women. Their multi-dimensional programs run in a 10,000 square feet facility and range from education (using modern pedagogy), health hygiene, and nutrition requirements for all students to community engagement projects.

Convinced that change cannot be imposed from the outside but has to emerge from the homes and environments of the children, Ek Tara functions with at least 60% participation from community members, who are appropriately trained and employed by the organization.

Ek Tara’s journey is just beginning. By 2023, the organization intends to include over 5000 beneficiaries and 1000 families in its programs.

You can read more about EkTara’s work in their blog posts:

Mamoon Akhtar (Samaritan Help Mission)

Mamoon is a committed social entrepreneur with twenty years of experience. Born and brought up in the slums of Tikiapara,* Mamoon was unable to complete his schooling due to lack of finances. But he was determined to make a difference in the lives of the children of Tikiapara through education.

Starting with teaching just a few students in his own home, Mamoon established Samaritan Help Mission (SHM), which has now grown into six schools with ~7000 students.

Mamoon collaborated with the local police to clean up the alcohol and drug-dens in a dilapidated school building (set up by Jewish settlers 150 years ago) and turned it into an outstanding educational institute. 100% SHM students have successfully negotiated the state run high school board examinations, and many are now working toward successful careers.

While championing education, Mamoon transformed the entire neighborhood with low-cost healthcare services, skills development centers for women, clean drinking water for the residents, and has facilitated their access to govt. programs and financial services. He has started to replicate these successful programs in the nearby slum of Bankra with ~400K residents.

A recipient of multiple national awards for social entrepreneurship, Mamoon’s vision is to ensure that every child in Tikiapara has ample opportunities to succeed. His goal is to develop good citizens who will give back to their own communities.

*Tikiapara is a suburb of Kolkata with ~350K residents, most earning less than $2/day.

Anant, Falguni, and Shreyas Nevatia (RHCF)

Brothers, Arun and Anant Nevatia grew up in an affluent family. Sadly, Arun was diagnosed with terminal cancer as a child and would spend the rest of his life battling this. Seeing the high costs of medical treatment, the brothers wondered how poor people fared in similar situations.

One day, they gave some money to a poor woman for her medical needs, and to their surprise, the woman returned with some sweets for them a few days later. She had spent the little money she earned by begging on the streets to show her gratitude to them. Stirred by this incident, the brothers gave up their lucrative real estate business and founded the Rural Health Care Foundation (RHCF) to provide high quality, low cost,, healthcare to the impoverished population.

 

To date, RHCF has treated over 2.5 million people through its 18 medical centers. Harvard and Yale business schools have studied RHCF’s model of frugal innovation. The founders have been invited to speak at worldwide conferences and garnered over 30 national awards.

After Arun passed away in 2013, his wife, Falguni, has taken his place to work with Anant and Anant’s son (Shreyas) to increase the scope of their work in meeting the health needs of the indigent people of Bengal.