Children's Hope India Gala Raises over $ 1 Million for Education

The 2015 Children's Hope India Gala set a new record with its Educate India initiative raising over $ 1 million for children's education in India.  Over 450 guests attended the very successful event on October 11 at Pier Sitxy in Manhattan, NYC, where Prakash Melwani and Manjul Bhargava were honored for their cotnributions to the cause of education for underprivileged children in India. 

The  sold-out gala evening began with cocktails on the verandah facing the Hudson River on a perfectly glorious fall evening. The festivities started with a high energy performance by the Aatma Performing Arts dancers who invaded the stage with stunning fast-paced dances in many genres, establishing a feel-good,  positive energy for the entire evening.  Having created a fun, India-cetnric flavor, the evening segued into an evocative itnroduction to Children's Hope India by Tinku Jain, media personaltiy and CHI advisory board member. 

Maya Rajani, president of CHI, discussed the grassroots work being done in our projects in India.  As Rajani noted, 'We are often asked 'What makes CHI different?'  In a few words, we are a grass roots chartiy that is run by a handful of very passionate and committed women professionals.  We pay no rent, utilities,t ravel expenses, and we have two part time staff who are equally dedicated.—so 90% of all tax deductible donations go towards our projects.'

Prakash Melwani, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone and CIO of the private equtiy group, received the Lotus Award.  In his remarks, Melwani talked about the importance of helping children get an education, and his 'Educate India' initiative. 'We all lead such comfortable lives here in the U.S. that one might ask why not just focus on charities closer to home. Well, to start with, I think one of the things I love most about this coutnry is the desire to look outwards to help those less fortunate. 

The idea that building walls can shut out problems is a delusion that will hopefully fade away after this election cycle. We are all interconnected as human beings and those children we help lift out of povetry will become part of our global communtiy for decades to come.'

He added, 'It costs just $150 to educate an Indian child for a year and change their life permanently :- about the cost of a good dinner in Manhattan, which you will almost certainly forget the next day. These children that CH ist rying to help come from such poor backgrounds, and the cost of improving their lives is so low, that I can't think of a more impactful area to direct charitable donations.' 

The Making a Difference Award was sponsored by Poonam and AJ Khubani of Telebrands who presented the award to Manjul Bhargava, who is a Professor of Mathematics at Princeton, and has received the Field Medal and the Padma Bhushan. He is a lead advisor on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Gyan Initiative to bring math and science to Indian school children. 

Bhargava said, 'In working with children in India, I've seen that  there is no greater reward or honor than seeing their faces light up when they are given a chance to show their talents, to dream for themselves  and to aspire towards that dream.  

'I've had the wonderful  opportuntiy to see some children's faces light up in this way, just by teaching them mathematics, and music, and potery, and it has been the greatest gift, bigger than any award could be.'  Bhargava noted with humor that the earnest children he taught in the Mumbai slums were far more excited and appreciative to be learning than his his students in Princeton! 

The Educate India challenge which was highlighted at the Gala with a live auction of projects by Christie's Star auctioneer Rahul Kadakia raised over $130,000 in the course of ten minutes. These funds will enhance CHI's efforts to bring technological learning and infrastructure to many more underserved children. 

Funds were further raised by a rich array of silent auction items including a Souza artwork donated by the DAG Modern, a sumptuous vacation in the private Bulgari villa in Tuscany by Podernuovo A Palazzone, and Air India tickets. 

The highlight of the evening remained children - and children helping children, as guests were itnroduced to CHI junior members, CH 2 and CH 3, young professionals and high school students in New York, who are actively fundraising to help less fortunate children get an education.

This year over 22 major corporations joined in as sponsors and we thank them all and welcome them to the Children's Hope family. It is their generostiy along with that of our long-time supporters which has made CHI reach this milestone in funding. 

About Children's Hope India: More than two decades ago Children's hope India  started as a small group of women professionals hoping to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged children. Now in 2015 Children's Hope India has over 20 projects across India impacting over 250,000 children, looking after their health, education and vocationalt raining. 

For more information: www.childrenshopeindia.org