On November 6, 2009, SAATH Founder and Managing Trustee, Rajendra Joshi, was named the Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year [2009]. Along with Brij Kothari of PlanetRead in Mumbai and Padmanabha and Rama Rao of RIVER in Andhra Pradesh, Rajubhai was honored at the India Economic Summit in New Delhi on November 8.
The trustees, staff and communities of SAATH want to extend their heartfelt thanks to our supporters who have made this honor possible. We’re here because of you.
From the Press Release:
Rajendra Joshi, Saath (http://www.saath.org), Ahmedabad
Today, more than 60 million people live in slums across India, lacking access to healthcare, education, employment and housing. In 1989, Rajendra Joshi developed Saath, which uses public-private partnerships to improve the lives of over 40,000 people per year. In 2009, Saath’s employment programmes with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation placed 8,000 slum residents in jobs at firms like Tata Indicom and Kotak Mahindra. Its Slum Networking Program has improved the physical infrastructure of 6,000 households while its four Urban Resource Centers in Ahmedabad have given 22,000 slum households access to microfinance accounts, insurance packages, preventive and natal healthcare, and pre-school education.
SAATH 