Jeroo
Billimoria is the founder of Childline India, a 24-hour emergency telephone service
for India's street children, providing access to police assistance and health
care. Trained as a social worker, she established several nonprofits in India
to serve the needs of street children before starting Childline India in 1995.
Since then Childline has responded to over 8 million calls for assistance. In
2004, Jeroo Billimoria became the Executive Director of Child Helpline International,
which acts as a helpdesk for existing child helplines in countries all around
the world, and provides child helpline services in impoverished countries where
this type of resource doesn't exist. CHI now works in 150 countries! Jeroo Billimoria
next created Child Savings International (now called Aflatoun) which is a global
network of school based clubs that teach children how to plan and save for the
future in order to break the cycle of poverty. For her tireless social entrepreneur
work she has received recognition from Ashok: Innovators for the Public and the
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as well as the Skoll Foundation
For Social Entrepreneurship Award which includes a major financial grant.