A Journalist Who Gave Up His Career To Educate Children And Empower Women In Seven States In The Country

He could have lived a luxurious life and earned a lot of money, but this person who was born in a small village in Haryana had the first-hand experience with poverty. He believed that if we focus on the upliftment of women and children, a lot of positive changes can occur in the society.

Dinesh Kumar Gautam, through his Drishti Foundation Trust, has covered seven states of the country to work for women and children. It is also surprising to know that Dinesh who has worked on such a scale has not had any government help so far.

The founder of Drishti Foundation Trust and a social worker, Dinesh had a tough journey, but his hard work and determination helped him face every difficult situation.

Dinesh was born in Gubhana village of Jhajjar district in Haryana and completed his schooling from Delhi’s Najafgarh area. Since a young age, Dinesh was sensitive to the problems people around him were facing and voiced his opinions in these matters.

At the age of 19, he established New Delhi Education Society in 1998 and through this organisation he started teaching underprivileged kids of Alwar and Mewat districts in Rajasthan. Initially, there was no staff and Dinesh himself would drive school van and pick children.

Dinesh completed his MA from one of the top colleges in North India with a full scholarship. He also registered his NGO Jeevan Jyoti Samiti in 1999 and began working for women and children.

Through this, his work for providing vocational training, better health and education started in full swing. He worked closely with slum children and women.

To sustain financially, he worked as a journalist in a newspaper media, but it didn’t interest him much. He wanted the country to move forward and his passion to work for society increased by the day.

Today, a lot of people have started to volunteer in slum areas adjoining Kirti Nagar in Delhi. Due to family responsibilities, Dinesh shifted to Ahmedabad, Gujarat. But his passion for working for the underprivileged did not fade. He started Drishti Foundation Trust in 2012.

Since then Drishti Foundation has been working at the grassroots level connecting people regularly.

More than 10,000 people volunteer for Drishti Foundation in seven states now focussing on health, education, and human trafficking control. The dedicated team of volunteers even spends from their personal savings for the children’s education.

Dinesh, in collaboration with Haryana government, has started charitable dental and health care units for free treatment of the poor. He leads a simple life and has no money for his comfort. He invests all his salary in the NGO so that needy people can avail help from the organisation.