Safeena Husain, the Founder of Educate Girls, received the prestigious WISE Prize for Education at the WISE 11 Summit (World Innovation Summit for Education).
This award, the WISE Prize for Education, is a unique global recognition that celebrates individuals for their outstanding contributions to education.
In our fast-evolving world, India stands out as an innovator, leveraging technology for social impact. Under the leadership of Safeena Husain, Educate Girls embodies this innovative spirit, using AI to pinpoint villages with a high number of out-of-school girls. Empowered by this data, over 21,000 gender champions visit the most challenging villages in India, identifying these girls. Collaborating with the government and communities, Educate Girls successfully reintegrates them into the formal education system.
Through its holistic strategy in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, Educate Girls has engaged over 1.4 million girls in enrollment and assisted more than 1.9 million students in remedial learning since its establishment.
The WISE Prize, sponsored by the Qatar Foundation, serves as a recognition of Safeena’s dedication to narrowing the gender gap in education in India. Safeena shared her sentiments on this accolade, “I am honoured and humbled for this recognition. This is a collective win for all of us working towards girls’ education, right from the government and local communities, to our dedicated gender champions and our valued supporters. Girls’ education is the most powerful tool and a transformative force in solving the world’s most complex problems. But most importantly, it is her inherent right. At Educate Girls, we are steadfast in our commitment to contributing to this transformation.”
Safeena emphasizes the synergy between human compassion and technological innovation as the powerhouse for transformative change, “AI can help us find the most vulnerable girls faster, and help us deliver quality education at scale however we must not forget that the human touch remains the indispensable element on the ground.”
Educate Girls achieved a significant milestone by introducing the world’s first Development Impact Bond (DIB) in education, linking funding to specific outcomes.
Now, with the WISE Prize, the organization is gearing up for its ambitious target: impacting 10 million adolescent girls and young women within the next decade. The goal extends beyond education completion, aiming to connect girls and young women to additional opportunities for employment and skill development. This commitment seeks to shape a future for girls in India characterized by boundless opportunities and dreams.
