Two MNF Grantees Nominated for Awards: Vote Today!

Philanthropy is integral to the Murthy Law Firm business plan. This innovation began when Sheela Murthy and her husband, Vasant Nayak, created the MurthyNAYAK Foundation (MNF), to channel their financial resources and philanthropic energies into socially transformative projects, changing the world, one person at a time. Areas on which MNF focuses its support are education and nutrition for children, empowerment for women and girls, and support for immigrants to the United States.

We are delighted to announce that two longtime friends of the MurthyNAYAK Foundation have been nominated for a Rockefeller Foundation Next Century Innovators Award: Baltimore-based JHPIEGO, an international public health nonprofit affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, and the Bangalore-based Agastya International Foundation, which runs the largest hands-on science program in the world, educating millions of children in rural India.

Both projects richly deserve the recognition and substantial grant funding this award would provide. According to the Rockefeller Foundation, the award honors “innovators whose work is improving the lot of the poor and vulnerable people” – an apt description of the path-breaking work of Agastya and JHPIEGO.

  • The Agastya International Foundation has a mission to spark curiosity and creativity among poor rural children in India. Its network of science centers serves children who otherwise would never have an opportunity to experience hands-on scientific inquiry. Agastya reaches into even the remotest rural communities with 70+ mobile labs that bring highly interactive educational programs to where they are most needed. The MurthyNAYAK Foundation is a proud supporter of Agastya’s work. [See Agastya on the MNF WebSite.]
  • JHPIEGO’s mission is to meet the health needs of women and their families through innovative, effective, and affordable programs that train local providers to deliver critical health services in places that lack a well-developed medical infrastructure. JHPIEGO has developed a new approach to cervical cancer screening that can be implemented in the developing world: using ordinary household vinegar, JHPIEGO-trained health workers can successfully identify precancerous lesions, which then can be treated with a freezing procedure called cryotherapy. [See more on JHPIEGO on the Rockefeller Foundation WebSite.]

At this writing, 100 world-class innovators are in the running for this prestigious award, which provides a grant of up to $100,000. Three honorees will be chosen – two selected by a Rockefeller Foundation panel, and a third selected through a public voting process. The finalist with the most votes wins the third Next Century Innovator Award. Your online vote can make the difference, and we urge you to support these projects – and if you can get your family, friends, and colleagues involved, so much the better!

We hope you will take a moment to vote for these projects, and help them achieve this well-deserved recognition and support!

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