Born in a philanthropist family in Montreal – Canada, Caroline was an active part of her family-run philanthropic foundation while studying and majoring in marketing & management from the renowned fashion school, LaSalle College. At the age of 18, she became the director of the foundation “Rêve d’enfants” meaning “Children’s dream” that helped physically challenged children by making their wishes come true and as well as raising funds for wheelchairs and specialized care equipment.
After her studies, she moved and worked in Italy and France where she amassed a decade of experience in the corporate industry working for renowned Fashion brands. After a successful career, she subsequently moved to India permanently in 2001.
Caroline is on a mission to inspire collective action and innovation for positive change. She believes in the importance of powerful leadership and empowerment to create a beautiful world for all of us. Her motto is inspired by the great Mahatma Gandhi: Together, we can be the Change we want to see in the world.”
She has over 30 years of experience in the Corporate world and Social sector ranging from grassroots direct programme development, intervention and implementation, partnerships, fundraising and Budget and grants management, social justice advocacy and NGO organisation and development.
HOPE FOR THE CHILDREN FOUNDATION
In 2007, Caroline founded Hope for the Children Foundation – A non-profit organization in Pune, India and has been associated with the foundation ever since as its Founder & CEO. For the past 14 years, Caroline and her team of 35 dedicated social workers & teachers have touched and changed the lives of 100,000 children and women under various developmental programs. Through its core projects, along with various programs and activities throughout the year.
HFCF is continuously working towards improving the lives of underprivileged and marginalized communities, especially for children, women and youth where she envision a world of sustainable transformation that brings social change, equal rights and opportunities for all.
HFCF mainly focuses on education, health, personality development and nutrition and empowering women and youth through different Vocational & Livelihood training programs and Life Skills education.
She has designed and conceptualized innovative programs that understand and respond to the urgent needs of children in vulnerable communities by contributing to their individual growth as well as the development of the community as a whole.
Our Outreach till today
- Provided over 6.02 million meals to hungry children.
- Distributed school bags and stationeries to 20,053 orphan & underprivileged children from different communities.
- 25,160 children benefited Medical Assistance and Humanitarian support
- Given remedial education, quality education and personality development on a daily basis through our Shiksha Ki Asha Learning centers to 1,049 children.
- Trained – 10,000 women with income generation programs, vocational & livelihood training.
- Starts-up 100 small businesses for our Women Empowerment program.
- Trained – 1000 youth in Utthan Life Skills Education Program for children conflict with the law in collaboration with the Juvenile Justice, Yerwada.
- Trained – 8,343 children, youth and women with our Life Skills Education
- Awarded Education Sponsorship to 2,134 students over the years.
As the founder CEO of Hope for the Children Foundation, she blends her wide experiences which bring life to her vision of a sustainable world, of goodwill & empowerment through a holistic approach to improve the quality of life of underprivileged children, their mothers and in turn, their communities.
COVID19 RELIEF WORK
With a population of 7.1 million of citizens only in Pune, it was a high priority to provide life-saving support such as food security, medical support, counselling services to those affected and possibly displaced due to natural disasters and emergency crises such as Covid19 pandemic. We also know that after each catastrophe or calamity an intervention for rehabilitation is needed.
During the lockdown, we provided a total of 3,02,126 meals to needy families and till date 2,266 food grain kits have been distributed to poor and needy people in the areas like Wadgaonsheri, Kharadi, Sainathnagar, Bhosari, Talegaon, Lohegaon, Yerwada, Chakan.
Caroline conceptualised the ‘Daal Chawal project’ started in collaboration with the Social Policing Initiative, Pune. Through this relief program, everyday 1000 homeless on the streets of Pune were served with cooked meals. 40,000 cooked meals were distributed through this initiative and 28,504 water bottles were donated to Pune Police to be distributed to migrant workers and needy daily wagers living Pune by trains.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/pune-police-tie-up-with-ngo-s-to-set-up-central-kitchen-to-feed-needy/story-pdjfYk86gLheEV4WQs4UgO.html?fbclid=IwAR0rmldPKXGXaBRujpXcYXsTWU-Z3D30SBfy7_fhG1vpTWrLkVNC2Q7UDX8
Safety gear such as masks, gloves, face shield, sanitizer needed to fight against COVID-19 was distributed to the Pune Police and needy community people. A total of 12,100 masks, 5000 gloves, 100 face shields and 1000 sanitizers were distributed. The reusable masks were an initiative for women empowerment for which a bread and butter for them during this lockdown.
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT & LEADERSHIP
Caroline fervently believes in Woman empowerment & Leadership. As a certified Posh, she is on the ICC board of various companies in Pune and provides workshops that promote inclusion and equality. For the past 8 years, she has been empowering and supporting women from the community through the Social Entrepreneurship Funds program.
In 2012, she conceptualised the Atmanirbharata program for Women empowerment. Caroline and her team have trained over 10,000 women with income generation programs, vocational & livelihood training and helped support 100 ladies to start their small businesses and have now conceptualised the formation of self help group federation called Mauka for women empowerment at the state level of Maharashtra.
Believe in yourself and Go for your dream! The world is surely full of challenges but if you are determined to succeed, nothing can stop you. Like Robin Sharma says. Nothing can stop you until you choose to be stopped!
CHILD FRIENDLY PUNE INITIATIVE
Over the past 10 years, Caroline has developed advocacy campaigns on child rights, child labour and child abuse by promoting the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015, Protection of Children from sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. We also design community programs for their protection and care with different events such as awareness campaign in public space, rally & walkathon, media advocacy, signature campaign and child labour mapping and rescuing. Founder of the Campaign of “I Say NO to Child Labour”, where she advocates against child Labour & fights for the rights of children and woman. She uses the medium to address issues on child abuse and promote the Right to Education. She is active member of the Action for Right of Children (ARC) network and the Campaign against Child Labour (CACL) network.
In 2019, Caroline and her team conceptualized the ‘Child Friendly Pune Initiative” with a comprehensive approach that is preventive, curative and promotes child friendly mechanisms among Child Care Institutes, Juvenile Justice Board and Police Department working closely with WCD and District Child Protection Unit by providing capacity building programs.
She successfully set up the first Child Friendly Police Stations and Child Friendly Juvenile Home model in Maharashtra.
On 30 November 2020, the inauguration of the first Child Police station took place at the Lashkar Police station with the honourable Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta, Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Shisve, Deputy Commissioner of Police Bachchan Singh and the Chief Guest, Prof. Karandikar, Director of IIT Kanpur.
https://www.punekarnews.in/pune-maharashtras-first-child-friendly-police-station-established-at-lashkar-police-station/?fbclid=IwAR0A-iRs3gtntLQaNe7OATw4Z5Sa2UV_y8k8p0XG1T6kwd4gOaMVA0S5j2M
Caroline developed and conceptualised various trainings at the Yerwada Juvenile Home for which the Computer Vocational room was inaugurated on 15th December. The event was inaugurated by Principal magistrate Juvenile justice board Pune, hon.A.A. Pathan, District Woman and Child Development Officer, Pune —Ms. Ashwini Kamble, Superintendent boys observation special home – Mr. G. N. Padghan, Senior Police Inspector lashkar police station Mr. Ashok Kadam and team member Resource Cell for Juvenile Justice (R.C.J.J) by TISS.
She also set up a kitchen garden just before the lockdown that provided the daily requirement of vegetables at the observation home during this tough time.
https://www.deccanherald.com/national/west/coronavirus-lockdown-observation-home-inmates-reap-benefits-of-vegetable-garden-830863.html.
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
The development and empowerment of young lives is of prime importance to Caroline and her team. She has developed for the past 5 years with a team of experts the content on 99 Life Skills sessions based on the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations and trained over 8,000 youth.
She also develop 3 programs:
●Utthan for rehabilitation of children conflict with the law in collaboration with the Juvenile Justice, Yerwada has empowered over 1000 youth to design their new life and accordingly help them finish their formal education or undertake vocational training.
●The Professional Guidance Center has been conceptualised to help students and youth from the age of 16 years and above with the skills necessary to take up Vocational trainings and / or continue their education, prepare the learners with tools of personality development and professional ethics by imparting Soft skills and life skills to promote confidence, team management skills & professionalism. We also promote livelihood and self-employment with support programs such as Basic English course, Digital & Financial literacy and helping the students to get enrolled for Government based schemes for youth and women.
●Shiksha Plus was established to support deserving girls to continue their higher education.
SPEAKER, MENTOR AND MODERATOR
●Caroline regularly delivers speeches, webinars and Keynote facilitator in corporate houses and schools on Social Entrepreneurship, Women Leadership, Education, Parenting, Life Skills education, Meditation & Personality development, Sustainable giving and Corporate Social Responsibility.
●She was a Mentor & Jury member for the Nokia (Microsoft) “Good Hackathon”
●She partnered and collaborated on the ‘Impact Funding Online Summit 2020’ in partnership with Meraklis and moderated sessions on Rural entrepreneurship and Sustainable Fashion and was part of a panel discussion on New Strategies for Non-Profit in a post COVID19 world.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
●October, 2019, She was nominated “Global Goodwill Ambassador” (GGA) www.globalgoodwillambassadors.org
●On 25 November 2019, Caroline received the prestigious ” Karmaveer Gold Chakra Award 2019” instituted with the United Nation and the REX Karmaveer Global Fellowship.
●September 21, 2020, On the International Day of Peace she was recognised as a “World Peace Ambassador” representing India and Canada.
THE FUTURE
Motto: When we educate a girl, we empower a woman and transform an entire community.
●To Scale our beautiful projects and make the child-friendly initiative a nation-wide success: We are constantly looking up for amazing partners that will not only help us to scale our programs in Pune and Maharashtra but also across India. We have developed amazing unique programs that have been tested over the years and brought amazing changes and impact in the communities we work. The beauty of our programs is that they are replicable.
●Post pandemic to continue to empower the youth in the communities – We have been working with youth for many years by helping them in their career choices, arranging for certified vocational training, mentoring and providing Life Skills that will help them forge their future. We are now piloting a new program called “Child Friendly Community for Protection & Empowerment of Children. It’s an ambitious program that will support our Child Friendly Initiative and bring a ray of Hope to vulnerable communities.
●Skilling women – For the past 8 years, we have been working with mothers and young women to make them independent and aware of their possibilities and talents . We now know that If they are given access to education they will definitely make the right decisions for their family and everyone will thrive.
Advice for young women
Believe in yourself and Go for your dream! The world is surely full of challenges but if you are determined to succeed, nothing can stop you. Like Robin Sharma says. Nothing can stop you until you choose to be stopped!