Maya Ajmera

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1993

Maya Ajmera

Global Fund for Children

http://www.globalfundforchildren.org

Washington D.C., United States

Community Improvement & Economic Development

The Bold Idea:

In the developing world, severe poverty and a lack of education limit many children's lives. As our world becomes increasingly interdependent, the problems that cloud children's futures, from lack of basic education to ethnic conflict, require global solutions.

At the Global Fund for Children, we recognize that promoting global understanding is essential for helping children to become responsible and caring citizens of the world. An integral part of our mission is increasing global understanding of cultural and social diversity through communications and educational outreach.

Through our Books for Kids project, the Global Fund for Children donates books to community organizations that serve children in need. For many children, the books they receive through this program are the first books they have ever owned. The Books for Kids project has donated more than 45,000 books to schools and organizations in the U.S. and around the world. Our children's-book-publishing venture offers young readers insight into cultural, social, and environmental diversity. Our award-winning books are powerful educational and advocacy tools that inform children and adults everywhere about the lives of young people. A portion of the royalties from Shakti for Children books, along with other private gifts, helps fund the Global Fund for Children’s grant making.

The Global Fund for Children makes grants to small community-based organizations around the world that help young people develop the knowledge and skills they need to become productive, caring members of our global society. Our grants support nonformal education programs that focus primarily on the needs of street children, child laborers, AIDS orphans, girls, and other vulnerable groups of children. By combining thoughtful grant making and an innovative communications strategy, the Global Fund for Children is helping to expand opportunities for children around the world.

Biography:

Maya Ajmera is the founder and president of The Global Fund for Children. She is also the author of several Global Fund for Children books, including GFC’s first book, Children from Australia to Zimbabwe.

Maya received a bachelor's degree in biology from Bryn Mawr College and a master's degree in public policy from the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. She also studied and traveled in Southeast Asia as a Rotary scholar. Her previous professional positions include special assistant to the president of the Population Institute and consultant for Family Health International.

She serves on the boards of directors of Echoing Green, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Washington Area Women's Foundation, and on the advisory boards of the American India Foundation, Youth Philanthropy Worldwide, Global Philanthropy Forum, and the Emerging Markets Foundation. Maya is fluent in Hindi.