Amitabh Shah

Founder

Amitabh Shah is the founder of Yuva Unstoppable [1], an Indian non-profit working on education, water & sanitation and livelihood.

Amitabh Shah is an Indian social entrepreneur and the founder of Yuva Unstoppable, a youth-led non-governmental organisation established in Ahmedabad in 2005. The organisation works on school infrastructure, sanitation, drinking water, nutrition and education for underprivileged children, and operates through a large network of young volunteers. Shah, who describes his role as chief inspiration officer, received the Prince's Prize for Innovative Philanthropy in 2015.

Early life and education

Shah took an MBA at Yale University. He has said that he turned down a job offer on Wall Street to return to India and work in the social sector.

Career

Shah founded Yuva Unstoppable in 2005 at the age of 23. He has attributed the decision to a visit that year to Kamlaben, the woman who had looked after him as a child, whom he found living in neglect in a village; after moving her to an old people's home in Ahmedabad he began working on social causes.

Yuva Unstoppable began as a volunteer movement encouraging young people to give two hours a week to community work, and grew to operate in around thirty Indian cities with a large volunteer base. Its principal programme has been the construction and renovation of toilets in municipal schools, together with drinking water, sanitation, nutrition and technology provision. The organisation has worked with the film director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, whose film Mere Pyare Prime Minister drew on the sanitation issue, and with the Government of Maharashtra and Hindustan Unilever.

Recognition

In January 2015 Shah was awarded the Prince's Prize for Innovative Philanthropy by Prince Albert II of Monaco at a ceremony at the Yacht Club of Monaco.[2][3][4][5]

Yuva Unstoppable

Yuva Unstoppable upgrades municipal and government school infrastructure — WASH facilities, digital classrooms — and runs scholarship and skilling programmes for young people. It reports 7 million+ beneficiaries, 7,000+ schools transformed and 150,000+ volunteers.

Yuva Unstoppable reports the following, on its own site: