Cyrus Vandrevala

Founder

Cyrus Vandrevala is the founder of Vandrevala Foundation [1], an Indian non-profit working on mental health.

Cyrus Vandrevala is an Indian-born, London-based private equity investor and philanthropist who, with his wife Priya Hiranandani-Vandrevala, founded the Vandrevala Foundation in 2008. The foundation funds and runs a free mental health helpline in India.

The foundation launched its Mental Health India initiative in 2009 and operates a round-the-clock crisis and counselling service reachable by telephone and WhatsApp in several Indian languages.

Career

Vandrevala began investing in technology businesses in his twenties and has since held investments across technology, healthcare, education, telecommunications, infrastructure, energy and real estate. In 2006 he was involved in the flotation of Hirco, the investment vehicle associated with the Hiranandani group, on London's Alternative Investment Market.

He and Priya Hiranandani-Vandrevala established the Vandrevala Foundation in 2008 and fund it themselves. On 3 August 2009 the foundation launched its Mental Health Initiative in India. It set up crisis helplines in partnership with hospitals and other institutions, including a 24-hour psychiatric helpline in Delhi opened in October 2011 by the then chief minister, Sheila Dikshit.

The foundation's helpline offers free psychological counselling and crisis intervention to anyone in distress, and by 2023 reported having handled more than 1.7 million calls and messages. Its stated aims are to build community-based mental health services, raise public awareness of mental illness, and make treatment available regardless of a person's means. The foundation was featured in a 2014 episode of the television programme Satyamev Jayate that dealt with mental health.

Recognition

The Vandrevala Foundation received India Today's Healthgiri Award for best mental health counselling in 2021 and a SABERA award for corporate social responsibility in 2022.[2][3][4]

Vandrevala Foundation

Vandrevala Foundation is a nonprofit established by Cyrus and Priya Vandrevala that launched a mental health helpline in India in 2009 to offer free, confidential psychological counselling and crisis mediation to anyone experiencing distress, depression, trauma or suicidal thoughts. The 24x7 helpline is staffed pan-India in English, Hindi and other regional languages, and the foundation reports facilitating over a million conversations since it began.

Vandrevala Foundation reports the following, on its own site: