About

Vishal co-founded Dream a Dream (www.dreamadream.org) along with 11 others. Dream a Dream a Dream is a registered, charitable trust empowering children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and flourish in the 21st century using a creative life skills approach. Currently, we work with 10,000 young people a year through two innovation labs ? After School Life Skills Programme and Career Connect Programme; have trained over 8000 teachers/educators impacting over 200,000 children and young people and impact over 1 Million children through the Happiness Curriculum in partnership with the Delhi Government. 

Over the years, Dream a Dream has received recognition for its innovative model and work. Dream a Dream is a GuideStar Platinum certified NGO, 3-time winner of the Outstanding Annual Report Award, 3-time regional finalist of the India NGO of the Year Award, Runner-up at the GDN Most Innovative Project Award and has been recognized by Lego Foundation and Ashoka as a Champion (out of 630 global organizations) in the space of Re-Imagining Learning in the world. These videos talk about our work - https://vimeo.com/124809296 and https://vimeo.com/124817309. 

Vishal has co-authored a paper along with Dr. David Pearson and Dr. Fiona Kennedy titled, ?The Life Skills Assessment Scale: Measuring the life skills of disadvantaged children in the developing world? and published in Social Behavior and Personality: An international journal, Volume 42, No 2 (2014). In 2018, the DLSAS was recognised as 1 of 100 Global Innovations in the world in K-12 education by HundrED.org. 

Vishal is an Ashoka Fellow (www.ashoka.org), an Eisenhower Fellow (https://www.efworld.org/) and a Board Member at PYE Global (www.pyeglobal.org). He has previously being a Founder Director of Unltd India and Board Member of India Cares Foundation. Vishal has been recognized as an ?Architect of the Future? by the Waldzell Institut in Austria. He is also an advisor and mentor to Reap Benefit and is deeply committed to mentoring start-up NGOs and young social entrepreneurs. He is a TEDx Speaker, active writer on development challenges and human-interest stories and a poet. In 2018, he was awarded the ?Heroes of Bengaluru? award. 

Vishal has completed his graduation in Commerce and Accounting from Bangalore University and previously worked with Xerox India and a startup investment bank called Technology Holdings India Pvt. Ltd. He was an active member of AIESEC, an international student-led organization with presence in over 80 countries, during his college days. 

Vishal believes that if we can re-imagine learning to develop empathy, creative thinking, problem solving and collaborative working skills amongst young people, they will be able to overcome adversity and flourish in this fast-changing world.