Our Team

Pehlay Akshar Family

Radha Goenka

Radha Goenka

Founder

Radha Goenka, Founder - Pehlay Akshar, and Director - RPG Foundation drives multiple programs to empower women, youth and children with education and skills, so that they can find meaningful employment and shape better futures.

Ashmita Mishra

Ashmita Mishra

Chief Operating Officer

Ashmita focuses on translating strategy into actionable goals for growth of the organization. Assists in the creation of operational strategies, policies, and manages the organization's performance.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
An environment where I am not judged and my opinions and thoughts are valued.

Saurabh Sonavane

Saurabh Sonavane

Lead, Strategy & Partnerships

Saurabh focuses on building organizational strategy. He also leads strategic partnership for growth and long term sustainability of the organization.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
The place which is free of bias & conflict. The environment where everyone is heard and valued.

Abhishek Kadam

Abhishek Kadam

Member, Operations

Abhishek provides overall end to end operational support for Learning rooms and is responsible for data monitoring and management.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Space where my perceptions and opinons are not bieng judged.

Anuj Maheshwari

Anuj Maheshwari

Member, MarCom

Anuj looks after everything related to Marketing, Branding, Events & Communications.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Good vibes with a good tribe.

Avinash Biramne

Avinash Biramne

Member, Operations

Avinash provides overall operational support for the Pehlay Akshar Learning Room Project and is responsible for building relationships with local municipal govt. partners.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Space where I feel valued and my suggestions/opinions are considered without being judged.

Avinav Pandey

Avinav Pandey

Member, Training

As part of the operations team of Maharashtra Scale up project, Avinav is currently focussing on implementing the Teacher Development Program in all 36 districts of Maharashtra.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
A place where I can feel confident, consists of no judgement and is without any biases.

Chetan Somkuwar

Chetan Somkuwar

Member, Donor Management, Budget Management & Fundraising

Chetan provides unconditional time and effort towards donor management, budget management & fundraising. He is passionate about building effective and long lasting relationships amongst our immediate stakeholders. He contributes majorly in the fields of project management, reporting, budget development and fundraising.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe Space means the platform for Healthy, Innovative and creative interactions internally and externally to build the PAF Community.

Dipti Mahajan

Dipti Mahajan

Member, Human Resources

Dipti heads the HR and Admin. She is directly responsible for the employee life cycle management of all employees at PAF. She focuses on planning, leading, directing, developing, and coordinating the policies, activities, and staff of the Human Resource (HR) department, ensuring implementation of the organisations mission and talent strategy.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space for me refers to places "intended to be free of bias, conflict and criticism".

Faiza Lambe

Faiza Lambe

Member, Digital Initiatives

Faiza, loves to read and have the ability to absorb and apply abstract principles in order to transfer these points of learning into other fields and applications, which not only helps to manage and deliver the project life cycle but also streamline the technical and non-technical platform.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
A place where I feel comfortable to express my emotions and thoughts and find a sense of acceptance and understanding among people at work.

Josmi Joseph Srampickal

Josmi Joseph Srampickal

Member, Monitoring & Evaluation

Josmi leads the overall monitoring and evaluation for both the schooling and teacher training interventions at Pehlay Akshar. In addition, she provides support to the organization in program implementation, content creation, budgeting and people management.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
An environment where one can be their true self without the fear of being judged. It is a space that nurtures comfort, growth and well being.

Karishma Ghuge

Karishma Ghuge

Member, Training

Karishma focuses on training management. She dedicatedly manages the interactions between the teachers and the trainers and overlooks the numerous training programs hosted and organized by PAF. She contributes to the development of the content for trainings and overlooks the end to end execution of the "Training of Trainers" workshop for the internal and external stakeholders.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
An environment where I feel confident and motivated and my opinions are valued.

Khyati Ved

Khyati Ved

Member, Training

Khyati provides overall strategic, operational and leadership support for Pehlay Akshar Teacher Training program which includes oversee program implementation, monitoring support, team management as well as communication with the external stakeholders.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space for me is a place where I feel confident about myself and am comfortable in expressing my opinions.

Neha Ganatra

Neha Ganatra

Member, Teacher Training and Digital Initiatives

Neha focuses on strengthening our Digital Initaitves. She is responsible for developing the Pehlay Akshar App, which is designed to help teachers and students stay connected and have easy access to learning material and resources.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
A place where I can express myself without fear of being judged, a place where we work as a team, respecting and being accountable to one another.

Nidhi Vatsa

Nidhi Vatsa

Member, Volunteering | Fundraising

Nidhi focusses on volunteering and fundraising initiatives at PAF. She focuses on ways to build successful partnerships with potential donors, knowledge partners and individuals for various campaigns and volunteering activities designed and conceptualized keeping in mind PAF's brand visibility.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space is one where there is respect, love and passion for each other's work and individuality.

Saima Shaikh

Saima Shaikh

Member, Training

Saima works towards improving teacher capacity in Government Schools across Mumbai.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
A supportive environment where I can learn and grow.

Sairaj Salvi

Sairaj Salvi

Human Resources and Admin

Sairaj is a part of HR team and supports in team building.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space is where that you feel you belong to and allows you to be truly yourself.

Sanmita Shetty

Sanmita Shetty

Member, Training

Sanmita focues on content writing for the Teacher training programme along with being a part of the Monitoring and Evaluation Team.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
A place where one has freedom to communicate without the fear of judgement. It is where one feels valued, respected and heard.

Shagufta Shaikh

Shagufta Shaikh

Member, Training

As a part of the training team, Shagufta focuses on building teacher capabilities and knowledge.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
My favorite corner in the house, where I can sit, with a cup of hot tea to relax and leave all other things behind.

Syeda Akheela Jahan

Syeda Akheela Jahan

Member, Training

As a part of the training team, Syeda focuses on building teacher capabilities and knowledge.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
With my Pehlay Akshar children because of their smiling faces, and with my team that gives me moral support through their gestures and words.

Asma Khan

Asma Khan

Member, Training

Asma works towards improving teacher capacity in Government Schools across Mumbai.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
A place where I can be honest with myself and the people around me.

Deeksha Pandey

Deeksha Pandey

Facilitator, Schooling

Deeksha is a part of the Learning Rooms team and looks at Schooling program content and Quality Assurance of the program.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space for me is an environment that has individuals who are receptive, reciprocative and empathetic in their thoughts and actions, dedicated for working towards a similar goal.

Janice D'Souza

Janice D'Souza

Member, Schooling

Janice is a Star Facilitator working for Schooling and Learning Room Project. She conducts sessions in BMC schools for students and works with the content team to plan engaging sessions for Functional English. Currently, she is excited to be working in "Learning Rooms", where she is exploring her expertise and trying her hands on different tasks where she can learn and grow more.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space to me means being able to speak my mind with no inhibitions and sharing life experiences openly.

Kirti Srivastava

Kirti Srivastava

Member, Training

Kirti is a Star Facilitator and works with the BMC Training Team. She leads a team of 5 facilitators and focuses on building her team's and teachers' capacity. She is also a part of the Content and Digital aids team which is responsible for providing quality content for various sessions.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
A safe space for me is a place where there is no judgement and I can express myself freely. A place which is warm, accepting, and welcoming.

Kusum Yadav

Kusum Yadav

Member, Schooling

As a part of BMC Schooling team. She conducts sessions for the BMC kids and is a part of content team.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space for me is where I can be real me and not being judged by anyone.

Meenaz Shaikh

Meenaz Shaikh

Member, Training

Meenaz is inquisitive and determined. She is a Star Facilitator working for BMC Training Project. She focuses on building capacity of the BMC teachers, her team as well as herself. She is also responsible to manage the operations of Content and Govt. Liasoning Team.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space to her means "to be able to be confident with no discrimination, criticism, inhibition or judgement"

Preeti Yadav

Preeti Yadav

Member, Training

Preeti is from the BMC Training Team. She is a Star Facilitator and she leads a team of 4-5 Facilitators. She is responsible for smooth functioning of Sessions of her schools and also support her team for the same. She has also been a part of our content team and is engaged with operational work as well.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
Safe space is being around people who are understanding and appreciative towards everyone. An environment where there are no judgements.

Priya Beck

Priya Beck

Member, Volunteering

Priya focuses on driving the volunteering initiatives for PAF. She is responsible for engaging various stakeholders in the school program to ensure effective, meaningful and gainful engagements.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
My safe space is my zen mood on.

Tanu Sharma

Tanu Sharma

Member, Training

Tanu is a Star Facilitator and works with the BMC Training Team. She focuses on building teacher capabilities and knowledge. She is also a part of the Monitoring and evaluation team which looks after the overall impact of the program.

What does "Safe Space" mean to you?
A safe space for me is a place where I don’t have to worry about being judged – where I can be completely myself and still feel cared for.