BusinessWire India
New Delhi [India], February 26: The American India Foundation Trust (AIF), catalyzing social and economic change in India over the last 23 years, recently hosted its annual India Mission Trip across the country. An immersive week-long journey - the yearly Trip serves as a gateway to experience the pulse of India's development story through AIF's agile, innovative, and impactful programs in some of the nation's remotest geographies.
The India Mission Trip convened 25 AIF board members, supporters, and donors across India and the US, along with industry leaders in the US-India corridor, to foster a global cohort dedicated to championing sustainable, life-changing development for communities at the margins.
From the forests of Kabirdham - home to the Baiga tribe - to the lakes and seas of the Ganjam district, from the hills of Ananthagiri, Paderu, to the by-lanes of Rewari, this delegation of senior philanthropists traveled to the hinterlands of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, to experience the intersectionality of vulnerabilities faced by tribal and rural communities, including climate change, migration, and gender inequality, across areas of cardinal needs - health, education, and livelihoods.
The delegation experienced first-hand the transformative impact of AIF's award-winning interventions - Learning and Migration Program; Digital Equalizer; Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative; Market Aligned Skills Training, and Banyan Impact Fellowship; designed and implemented in partnership with system actors like the local, district, state, and central governments, local knowledge partners, and aboriginal communities. Each Program showcased the resilience of communities and frontline staff and allowed for engagement with local groups, governance bodies, and other stakeholders, nurturing people-to-people and institution-to-institution connections.
The eminent delegation included Lata Krishnan, Chief Financial Officer, Shah Capital Partners; Harit Talwar, Board Member - Mastercard, Apexon & Inveniam.io, Manu Shah, Chief Executive Officer, M.S. International, Inc.; Jay Tambe, Partner, Jones Day, Justin Steinberg, Partner & Portfolio Manager, Steinberg Asset Management; Ajay Shah, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Shah Capital Partners; Varsha Kaura, Global Client Lead, Omnicom (Mars Inc.); Nishant Pandey, Chief Executive Officer, AIF and Mathew Joseph, Country Director, AIF, among many others.
"Our multifarious efforts to combat inter-generational and multi-dimensional poverty are intended to foster greater collaboration within the India-US corridor, encourage innovation, nurture economic development, and tackle global challenges. AIF's impact in system strengthening across education, health, and livelihoods, to drive sustainable impact at scale is bolstered by the trust and engagement of our partners and we are honored to be on this journey together to impact the farthest reaches of India," said Nishant Pandey, Chief Executive Officer, AIF and Mathew Joseph, Country Director, AIF.
In its third decade of service, AIF's focus on climate change mitigation for marginalized communities and, economic empowerment of women, persons with disabilities, and underserved youth, necessitates collaboration, cogitation, and co-creation of sustainable solutions, by the public and private sectors, across the world's two largest democracies, and the India Mission Trip rightly serves as a linchpin to this shared vision of creating impact at scale across India's disenfranchised groups.
The Trip also fostered opportunities for open dialogue with policymakers, industry leaders, and social changemakers. In Odisha, delegates engaged in discussions with senior bureaucrats, government officials, and industry leaders on grassroots governance, and purposeful partnerships for the future of philanthropy.
Concluding the Trip in New Delhi, the delegation was hosted by the renowned Author, philanthropist, and Padma Shri awardee - Mrs. Kiran Nadar, at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, in an ebullient celebration of the spirit of India, through a showcase of Padma Shri awardee celebrated photographer - Raghu Rai's collection, providing a deeply reflective and fitting end to this transformative immersive journey.
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