Tanya Pinto – Baal Dan Means Thank You – TEDxSMU 2009
Raised in India, Dubai and Australia, Tanya graduated from Australia’s Curtin University in 1998. She began working for The Richards Group in 1999, the nation’s largest independent branding agency. In 2005, Tanya took a sabbatical to work in an orphanage in India. Tanya’s experience working at Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta was life-changing and she wanted to do more to help children in India. Tanya knew that if a child was provided with food and education, the cycle of poverty could be broken in just one generation. In early 2006, Tanya started Baal Dan (Baal means Child, Dan means Donation in Hindi) – a charity committed to helping children in need in India. Since 2006, Baal Dan Charities has provided aid to over 3,000 children in need all over India. Tanya was recently awarded the Sri-Sri Ravi Shankar Award for Uplifting Human Values.