Akanksha Foundation


The Akanksha Foundation founded by Shaheen Mistri is a non-profit organization with a mission to impact the lives of children from low-income communities, enabling them to maximize their potential and change their lives. The foundation works primarily in the field of education, addressing non-formal education through the Akanksha center and also formal education by initiating school reform through The School Project.
Currently, Akanksha reaches out to around 9300 children through two models: the after-school or center model and the school model. Akanksha has 3 afterschool centers, remaining from its older project and 21 schools in Mumbai and Pune, run in partnership with the Mumbai and Pune Municipality, as part of the School Project. The School Project is a venture to open high-quality schools serving children from low-income communities in Mumbai and Pune. These schools are in partnership with local municipalities, with the vision of creating small clusters of model schools in these cities that can be used to impact the mainstream education system.
Akanksha was founded by Shaheen Mistri. She now heads Teach for India.