Bharti

Bharti Foundation wins Qatar Foundation’s prestigious WISE Award for its Satya Bharti School Program

Recognition for the transformative impact of the program in rural India

Satya Bharti School Program made the cut from over 400 global applications

New Delhi, November 15, 2012: Bharti Foundation’s flagship initiative, the Satya Bharti School Program, has won the Qatar Foundation’s 2012 “World Innovation Summit for Education” (WISE) Award for its transformative impact and innovative approach to improve the quality and delivery of education to underprivileged children in rural India. The Satya Bharti School Program provides free quality education to over 38,000 children across rural India through its network of 254 primary and secondary schools. Bharti Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, one of the leading business groups in India.

Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Co-Chairman of Bharti Foundation said, “We are delighted to receive this international recognition for the ground breaking work done by our team under the Satya Bharti School Program. What started out as a small dream is today one the largest interventions of its kind in India when it comes to basic education for the underprivileged. I would like to thank the Qatar Foundation for this coveted award. This recognition will give us the confidence and encouragement to take this program to greater heights.”

The 2012 WISE Awards Finalists have been selected under the theme 'Transforming Education'. The WISE Awards for Education is given each year by the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). Launched in 2009 by the Qatar Foundation (Qatar), the Summit identifies, felicitates and promotes pioneering programs that are using education as the key tool to solve ‘important global problems’. In the last four years, the WISE Award committee has received over 1,600 applications from 128 countries, with only 24 outstanding educational projects being declared winners.

As a winner of this prestigious international award, Bharti Foundation will receive a prize money of $20,000 (U.S.) for further enhancement and development of the program and will also enable the Foundation to showcase its endeavours, best practices and learning at the world forum and inspire change through education.

About Bharti Foundation and the Satya Bharti School Program:

Bharti Foundation was set up in 2000 as the philanthropic arm of the Bharti Group of Companies to help bridge the education divide between urban and rural India. Towards achieving this intent, the Foundation launched its flagship initiative, the Satya Bharti School Program in 2006. The program delivers quality education, free of cost, to underprivileged children in the villages of India, focusing primarily on the girl child, and is helping transform students into well educated, confident, employable and socially responsible citizens. Currently, more than 38,000 children are enrolled in 254 Satya Bharti Schools (including 187 primary, 12 elementary and five senior secondary schools) across six Indian states. The intent of the program is to develop scalable, sustainable and replicable components of quality education to make a large scale impact on the education sector as a whole.

About the WISE Awards for Education

Inaugurated in 2009, the WISE Awards identify, showcase and promote innovative educational projects from around the world. To date, 1,600 applications have been received from 128 countries, resulting in 122 Finalists and 24 winning projects. The 24 successful projects have come from a variety of countries around the world, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, India, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the USA. These “real world” initiatives are progressively building a pool of sound practice which is having a local or global impact on education.

About the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE)

WISE is dedicated to building the future of education through innovation. This global collaborative initiative was inaugurated in 2009 by Qatar Foundation under the leadership of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. Its mission is to address the challenges facing 21st-century education, to expand dialogue around the world and to implement practical and sustainable solutions. To this end, WISE holds an annual international Summit that is a unique meeting place for thought leaders and experts to share best practices in education. WISE is also a continuing initiative devoted to reaching outside the traditional circles of the education community to promote innovation and implement concrete actions.