Leadership
Farida Lambay
Co-Founder & Trustee, Pratham Mumbai Education Initiative
Farida has over 40 years of experience as an educationalist and social activist. She co-founded Pratham in 1994 along with Dr. Madhav Chavan.
The highlights of Farida’s vast career have been her respected post of being the Vice Principal of College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan, where she is endeared by both staff and students and Co-founder and Trustee Pratham.
Farida has always worked with the unreached and work with children with special needs is yet another initiative that is led by her. The vision here is to mainstream the children and develop an inclusive space for all children She is on government formed committees such as National Education Policy, Sachar Committee, Child Labour Eradication Advisory committee, a few Corporate Social Responsibility and Non-Government Organizations board.
At present in Pratham, she leads People related initiative, Mental wellbeing, Capacity building, routine people related issues and she is Chairperson of Apex Committee for Prevention of Sexual Harassment at workplace.
Her efforts have been acknowledged through numerous awards including, the Ahilyabai Holkar Award presented by the Maharashtra Government, the changemaker Award by Hindustan times, the Seva Ratna award by Sahyadri, Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development, 2021 and most recently the Ficci flo Trailblazer Women Achiever Award 2023.
Kishor Bhamre
DIRECTOR
Kishor heads Pratham Council for Vulnerable Children- Child Protection vertical of Pratham. He is one of the key persons for setting up of PCVC and its expansion into other states. He is responsible for all operations and programs across 8 states. He is in charge for fund raising and strategic planning. Kishor has a long association with Pratham starting from 2000.
In addition to his role in PCVC, he is a member of Apex Committee formed under Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act and trainer for internal committees on POSH.
Kishor is involved in advocacy initiatives and works closely with the State and Central Government on key issues pertaining to child protection.
Kishor has completed his Masters in Social Work from College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan and Masters in resource mobilization and management, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research.
Chandrashekhar Deshmukh
MEMBER, CENTRAL TEAM
Chandrashekhar is a mentor and leading the PCVCs advocacy initiatives for State of Gujarat and member of PCVC central team. He joined Pratham in 1997, after completing his Master’s Degree in Social Work from Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, Mumbai.
In 2001, he was an integral part of Pratham’s team dealing with the educational rehabilitation of children affected by the earthquake in the Kutch region and since then has been driving PCVC’s interventions in state of Gujarat. He oversees CHILDLINE project in state of Gujarat.
Sneha Shirgaonkar
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Sneha leads the planning and execution of the PCVC projects in Northern States like Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. She is responsible for donor management and documentation. She looks into data management and research for different child protection intervention across PCVC states. Sneha has been part of PCVC team since 2010.
Additionally, Sneha serves as Chairperson for Internal Committee in Mumbai, constituted under Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act.
Sneha has done her Masters in Social Work (MSW) from College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan Mumbai and has done her graduation in Political Science.
