As CEO and Director of ChildFund India, Neelam Makhijani is working to give excluded and vulnerable children the capacity to improve their lives and become adults who bring positive change in their communities.

As a journalist in New York, Neelam Makhijani worked for a leading Asian weekly, where she wrote and commented on South Asian political issues. Her job connected her to many humanitarian initiatives and she decided to take her job on-ground and “be the change she wished to see”.

Neelam moved back to Delhi and joined HelpAge India to manage their international fundraising and communications. Fundraising for Neelam was like being a fish in water and she was soon promoted to Director and transferred to Help the Aged in UK. She stayed in UK for 15 years and occupied leadership roles with various global organisations.

She pursued an MBA from London University, and an Excellence in Leadership course from Harvard University. She pursued various other leadership courses while she was in UK.

“I pondered over the need of leadership talent or rather the lack of it in the development sector, and also had this desire to move back home and look after my ailing mother. I joined ChildFund India as Country Director and CEO four years ago,” she says.

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“ChildFund India’s vision is to work for an India where children lead a dignified life and achieve their full potential. It has recently developed its Country Strategy 2020, that illustrates guidelines for an accountable, sustainable and result-oriented ‘for the children’ development organisation. It will also address issues of child protection, and make inroads into new locations, including urban slums that need special attention, while consolidating its existing spread,” says Neelam.

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