AFEF
Join us by supporting our efforts to make a measurable difference in the lives of others.
AFEF Inc is a nonprofit organisation set up with the vision to invest in programs that provide solutions to deep-rooted social inequalities and build the capacities of credible grassroots organizations across the globe that work towards that goal. AFEF Inc aims to fulfil this purpose through a focus on three key segments of society – Women, Children and Vulnerable Communities.
ABOUT US
As a nonprofit organization our mission is to support reputable charitable organizations that work with some of the most vulnerable communities. We believe these organisations have the ability to effect change at the grassroots level and their development is crucial towards social progress.
AFEF Inc is a nonprofit organisation set up with the mission to invest in programs that provide solutions to deep-rooted social inequalities and build the capacities of credible grassroots organizations that work towards that goal. AFEF Inc aims to fulfil this purpose through a focus on three critical segments of society :
Children – AFEF Inc believes that every child, irrespective of their background, gender or socioeconomic status, has the right to attend school, stay in school and learn in school. Therefore, AFEF Inc will focus on addressing the systemic challenges that impact children’s access to quality education.
Women – AFEF Inc will adopt a rights-based approach to supporting the most vulnerable women in society, by working to free them from violence and discrimination, build their awareness and accessibility to their rights and entitlements, make them economically independent and build grassroots leaders who have a respected position in society.
Vulnerable Communities – AFEF Inc seeks to work with grassroots organizations to find solutions to the enhanced vulnerabilities of communities caused by unemployment, migration, failing agriculture and natural calamities. AFEF seeks to make programmatic interventions targeted towards building the resilience of the rural and tribal populations as integral parts of the agrarian economy.
We aim to connect with potential foundations, corporations and individuals by networking through peer engagement, events and research. All of these activities are designed to enhance outreach,build the credibility of AFEF Inc and appeal to the larger philanthropic ecosystem.
OUR ORGANISATIONS
GRASSROOTS ORGANISATIONS THAT INSPIRE OUR WORK
Below are a few of the partners of AFEF Inc working to provide much-needed relief during the second wave of COVID-19 in India.
Samaritan Help Mission (SHM), West Bengal
Last year, SHM extended support to nearly 20,000 families through their relief activities in Tikiapara and surrounding areas. This year SHM is seeking funding to further these initiatives:
South Orissa Voluntary Action (SOVA), Odisha
Founded in 1993, through their relief initiatives last year, SOVA spread awareness on COVID19 via broadcasts in local languages through community radios. The program reached nearly 2.5 lakh community members. They additionally provided 18,000 hygiene kits to front line workers and village volunteers, 8000 food kits to vulnerable families. With the second wave hitting the region, SOVA has identified 5000 families in Koraput and is currently engaging in the following relief activities on the ground:
Goonj, Pan India
Furthering the extensive work done last year and supporting the marginalised rendered vulnerable yet again in the second wave of the pandemic, currently, Goonj is seeking financial support to:
Migrants Resilience Collaborative (MRC), Pan India
MRC, is a Jan Sahas initiated multi-stakeholder collaborative formed as a result of the dire consequences of the first wave of the pandemic on the migrant communities. The collaborative aims to ensure the safe and responsible recovery of migrant families and their livelihoods in India post-COVID-19. As emergency response last year, MRC facilitated entitlement delivery for over 58,000 workers, facilitated relief for more than 1 million migrant workers across 19 states and have developed a 1.5+ million workers database connecting them to Government skill mapping and job initiatives. In the second wave, MRC is focusing on:
Sshrishti India Trust, Delhi and Uttarakhand :
Founded in 2003, Sshrishti provides opportunities for inclusive development to the marginalised sections of society and operates learning centres in slum clusters, providing education and digital literacy to nearly 2,000 underprivileged children from Classes Nursery to V. In 2020, responding urgently to the Covid-19 crisis Sshrishti intervened in the slum clusters in Delhi /NCR inhabited by migrant labourers, many of them jobless, struggling to feed their families and combat the pandemic. It distributed dry ration, cooked meals, dry food packets, hygiene kits and face masks to frontline workers; while conducting online education sessions for the students and providing livelihood to women in distress by getting masks made by them. With the second wave hitting the region worse than before, Sshrishti is has undertaken the following activities:
- Distribution of rations to families in distressed regions of Delhi and Uttarakhand
- Mental Health Support – through group counselling sessions for communities and workshops for children. Additionally, offering online and offline psychosocial support to families of COVID patients
- Online classes for children to help them stay in touch with education
- Production of masks by Livelihood programme
In addition to the above, they are currently mobilising support for:
- Distribution of hygiene kits and food items to more low-income communities identified in Delhi
- Awareness generation on vaccines – Enabling vaccine literacy, overcoming hesitation and facilitation of registrations
- Imparting knowledge on COVID appropriate behaviour and home management protocols for COVID positive patients to avoid panic among slum communities
- Link – https://sshrishti.org/
Pragati, Koraput :
Founded in 1992, Pragati Koraput facilitates and empowers peoples’ organisations to protect, utilise, control and manage the local resources through collective action, focusing on food and nutrition security through soil and water conservation, eco-friendly irrigation and sustainable agricultural practices.
In the first wave of the pandemic, the NGO managed to generate awareness across 315 villages of the Koraput District and distribute mask and sanitizers to 30000 people.
- Currently carrying out awareness session on safety measures and vaccination in the local language
- Distribution of masks and sanitizers in the rural areas to reduce risk and vulnerability
- As the staff and the frontline healthcare workers are engaged in the communities, they have been provided with the PPE kits to ensure their safety
- Medicine Kits are made available at cluster level with the Aangan wadi workers. The Kit consists of the following – paracetamol, antibiotics, vitamins, thermometers and oximeters.
- Link – http://pragatikoraput.org/
Manuvikasa
Last year, Manuvikasa supported over 6500 families through distribution of ration kits. Additionally, it provided scholarship support to underprivileged meritorious students and employability equipments like fishing box, sewing machine to women while supporting farmers with goods vehicle. Amid the second wave, Manuvikasa is seeking assistance to extend relief support through:
– Provision of basic infrastructural support to provide minimum treatment at block level hospitals
– Provision of nutrition kits for food security of distressed communities
– Provision of preventive measures (like health kits, PPE, masks, etc) to the health workers, doctors and others in need
– Extending logistics support (like travel for vulnerable populations, etc) during vaccination drives
CORO
Last year, CORO extended support to 27,250 households across 40 districts in Maharashtra and Rajasthan through distribution of dry food kits, PPE and sanitation kits, direct cash support to women survivors of domestic violence. In the second wave, CORO is seeking support to reach 10,000 socially marginalised families through the following activities:
– Provision of dry food and basic hygiene kits
– Provision of compensation to each family unit that has faced livelihood loss
– Provision of basic medical equipment to equip populations at the village/community level
– Provide assistance in supporting urgent medical treatment costs, COVID medicines and immunity boosting supplements
Gramin Vikas Evam Chetna Sansthan (GVCS)
Last Year, GVCS provided jobs through mask making to jobless artisans and distributed over 2,00,000 masks for free. They supported over 19,000 people through COVID relief activities. Given the gravity of prolonged lockdowns and adverse effects of the second wave on vulnerable communities, GVCS is seeking support for the following activities:
– Awareness about COVID safety measures, symptoms, tests and treatments among villagers
– Provision to establish a COVID patient recovery unit with 200 beds, to provide immediate and free treatment
– Provision to set up an isolation unit with 100 beds
– Provision of medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, facilitating plasma, drugs like Remdesivir to hospitals and facilitate more COVID testing in the region
– Collate a directory of COVID recovered patients eligible for plasma donation
Nishtha, West Bengal
To date, they have prevented nearly 680 incidences of rights violations which have in turn supported over 27,000 girls. Additionally, Nishtha has played a critical role in preventing over 150 incidences of early child marriage and developed nearly 4,000 women and adolescent leaders.
Amid the second wave of the pandemic, Nishtha is seeking support to extend immediate relief by provision through:
- Dry ration kits
- Hygiene kits and medical support for over 2500 households
Sanjog, Kolkata
Last year, communities of Sanjog’s intervention areas have faced challenges in terms of limited COVID specific resources (scarce testing, beds, medicines), loss of jobs due to prolonged lockdowns, immense scarcity of basic food essentials for vulnerable populations as well as an increase in anxiety levels which went unnoticed due to struggles for survival. In view of the second wave, they need support for:
– Distribution of immediate ration kits for Survivors of Violence
– Extending support for purchase of medicines for COVID and other diseases
– Provision of mental health support interventions through medications and tele-counselling for Survivors and Social Workers
– Supporting need-based livelihoods interventions
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does” – William James
OUR MISSION
AFEF Inc seeks programs and organisations that work with three broad segments of society:
WOMEN
Through Empowerment
AFEF will support organisations that adopt a rights-based approach to supporting the most vulnerable women in society, by working to free them from violence and discrimination, build their awareness and accessibility to their
rights and entitlements, make them economically independent and build grassroots leaders who have a respected position in society.
CHILDREN
Through Education
We believe that every child, irrespective of their background, gender or socio-economic status, has the right to attend school, stay in school and learn in school.
Therefore, AFEF will focus on supporting organisations that address the systemic challenges that impact children’s access to quality education.
VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES
Through Resilience Building
We seek to work with grassroots
organizations to find solutions to the enhanced vulnerabilities caused by
unemployment, migration, failing agriculture and natural calamities. We will support programmatic interventions targeted towards building the resilience of the rural and tribal populations as integral parts of the Indian agrarian economy.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
SHAILAJA AKKAPEDDI
DIRECTOR
Shailaja Akkapeddi is an independent consultant specializing in Nonprofit Capacity Building, Small business Development, and Gender and Development work. Her two main passions are working on initiatives involving resettled refugees in Salt Lake City with special focus on refugee women and grassroots NGOS that focus on marginalized women in India. She has worked at the International Rescue Committee, Utah Micro Loan Fund, Women’s Business Institute at Salt Lake Community College and University Neighborhood Partners at the University of Utah. Her work includes one on one small business counseling, entrepreneurial curriculum development and group training, microloans, women’s economic empowerment workshops, management training for refugee community leaders, developing and piloting nonprofit capacity building incubator programs and outreach and advocacy for these programs. Her current work is focused on capacity development of NGOs through partnerships with foundations both in India and the United States.
Shailaja is a native of Mumbai, India. She came to Utah 30 years back for her graduate studies and stayed. She got her MBA and M.S. in Economics from Utah State University. She and her husband raised their two children in Salt Lake City and enjoy the Utah outdoors and mountains with their dog.
VIDYA SHAH
DIRECTOR
Vidya Shah is the Executive Chairperson at EdelGive Foundation, the philanthropic initiative of Edelweiss Group, a leading Indian diversified financial services group. She also belongs to the group of Founders of Edelweiss and serves as a Director on the Board of the Group’s holding company, Edelweiss Financial Services Limited. With a career spanning nearly 35 years, Vidya has had a close ringside view of the growth of financial services in India, as well as philanthropy. She set up EdelGive Foundation in 2008 to address the challenges of grassroots organisations in growing and strengthening their programmes and organisations in a new way that placed CSOs at the centre of its work.
Vidya was an investment banker for 11 years, served as Edelweiss’s CFO for 7 years, and has, over the last 15 years steered the growth of Edelweiss’s social investments to develop EdelGive into a strategic philanthropic organisation. Having witnessed the potential of small to mid-sized, grassroots NGOs to better address India’s development concerns, Vidya has designed EdelGive’s structure of giving to include both financial and non-financial support to over 150 organisations, scaling their budgets, impact, and reach, exponentially. She has developed a unique model for EdelGive’s NGO partners which places them at the centre of grant-making, not only providing initial grants to these organisations but also managing funding from other institutional and corporate partners. Through this approach, over the years, EdelGive has emerged as a go-to partner of choice for Indian and foreign funders wanting to engage with the Indian development ecosystem. Consequently today, EdelGive functions as a Philanthropic Fund Manager and Advisor for both grant-makers and credible NGOs.
Vidya also serves on the boards of various prominent CSOs such as Akshaya Patra Foundation, Agastya International Foundation, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Olympic Gold Quest, Jan Sahas Foundation, and the Indian School of Public Policy. She is also a member of the Governing Board of the Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur. Additionally, Vidya is also on the board of several international organisations including WINGS, Empower Families for Innovative Philanthropy and Equality Now. She is a member of the Asia Gender Network, a group of members curated by AVPN, committed to changing the future for Asian women and girls.
She has been recognised as India’s Top 100 Women in Finance by association of International Wealth Management of India (AIWMI) 2019 and, more recently awarded the ‘Exemplary Woman of the Year’ in Philanthropy, 2022 by Abhyuday Vatsalam. She also received the Shakti Award by the Rotary club. Vidya earned an MBA degree from IIM-Ahmedabad, India’s most prestigious business school.
RAJUL KADAKIA
DIRECTOR
Rajul Kadakia is the Cofounder and CEO at Tech Girl, a social platform designed to empower and support female tech entrepreneurs from idea to funding. She is a serial tech entrepreneur and angel investor passionate about emerging trends in technology, mentoring female founders and working with early-stage startups on product, team, pricing, go-to-market, partnerships and fundraising.
Rajul began her career in investment banking as an energy equity research analyst then moved into industry in the Enterprise Servers and Storage division at HP. Shortly thereafter she created a luxury brand of baby and toddler keepsake albums with artistic quality fill-in pages for busy moms which were sold at high-end retailers and gift shops throughout the US. The pages were later digitized for kids to create their own online photo books which led to the formation of PixyKids (later renamed Kazaana), a venture-backed social platform for kids. Rajul then built, led and grew Craze, a social selling platform for lifestyle professionals and influencers in Beauty, Fitness, Food, Fashion, Travel, etc. to help them connect with their fanbase while monetizing their passion, expertise and know-how. The Craze platform was acquired by Tech Girl to leverage its analytics/dashboard, social and community capabilities.
Rajul currently serves on the boards of The University of Texas McComb’s School of Business and AFEF Inc, the philanthropic arm of Edelweiss. She is also a Managing Partner at Golden Seeds and serves as an advisor to several early-stage tech startups.
Rajul graduated from the University of Texas with a BBA in Accounting and a BA in Biology and is an active member of various nonprofits and charities focused on entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment. Her ultimate goal is to create a non-profit organization, Ayana.org, that supports and empowers female tech entrepreneurs in emerging markets such as India, Pakistan and UAE.
FERGUS FLEMING
DIRECTOR
Fergus Fleming has 25 years of financial services experience in emerging markets covering institutional equities, investment banking and capital raising. He has run businesses for global financial services firms including Barings, HSBC and ABN AMRO in London, New York, India and Singapore. For the last 10 years he has worked with Edelweiss Financial Services where he has played an integral role in scaling the Alternative Asset Management business of Edelweiss, through establishing strategic partnerships and sourcing LP commitments from leading Pension Funds, Insurance Companies and Asset Managers in Canada and the US. Fergus is graduate of Oxford University and is married with two children.
DEVEN WAGHANI
DIRECTOR
Deven Waghani, a resident of Seattle is an experienced executive who has led worldwide teams for Support Sales, Sales Operations, Product Management & Corporate Strategy at Software companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Micro Focus. Deven has global operational experience, including P&L ownership and sales quota responsibilities, and strategy expertise, with a demonstrable track record of driving performance improvement and delivering results. He holds a B.Tech from IIT Bombay and has completed his post- graduation from IIM Calcutta.
PRANJUL SRIVASTAVA
DIRECTOR
Pranjul Srivastava is a Managing Director and Head of Business Development in North America for Edelweiss Financial Services Inc. He is in charge of developing and cultivating relationships with institutional investors and marketing Edelweiss’s various alternative strategies. Prior to joining Edelweiss, Pranjul worked with Jina Ventures, a niche private equity firm focused on the secondary market within emerging markets. He has also worked at JPMorgan Chase and AllianceBernstein in an institutional sales role. Pranjul holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Tufts University and has an MBA from Thunderbird, The School of Global Management
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Address : AFEF Inc. 450, Lexington Ave , Suite 4-216, New York, NY- 10017, USA
E-Mail : [email protected], [email protected]
Contact Number : +1-732-773-3012