13:00, 11 August 2021
Words by Smiley Team, Staff Writer, London
Anita Goyal MBE is a woman with passion and purpose.
The award-winning philanthropist and author was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s honour list in January 2021 for her services to diversity and female empowerment. She’s helped more than 30 charities per year, impacted 10,000 women, and has a lot more to give.
Now, she’s the chair of the Hemraj Goyal Foundation, vice president of Barnado’s, ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society and a trustee to many other charitable organisations.
[Read More: The beauty of tree planting with children]
Anita was born in east London and spent 20 years as a teacher. It was her husband, Avnish Goyal, who introduced her to the world of philanthropy. “My husband set up a family foundation 11 years ago now in memory of his late father,” Anita explains to Smiley News. “The idea of the foundation at the time was to encourage the next generation of the family to look at charity giving and serving others.”
Avnish had a very busy lifestyle within the social care sector and being a successful entrepreneur, says Anita. So from 2013, Anita adopted a key role within the family foundation — the Hemraj Goyal Foundation — organising fundraising events for affiliated charities. Inspired by the opportunity to help vulnerable women and children worldwide, she decided to leave teaching and embarked upon a full-time career in philanthropy.
“I was scared initially,” says Anita, “but it was an exciting opportunity to transfer all my skills working with young people. That’s our foundation’s aim. So I did it, I took a risk, and it’s been a great journey.”
A big campaign Anita worked on was anti-FGM - she helped raised £191,000, which led to the recruitment of the UK’s first ever FGM social workers. “It was an intense two years of events, raising awareness and fundraising,” says Anita. But it definitely paid off. “We know FGM is still being illegally practised in communities across England, so the support from everybody has strengthened the ability of the National FGM centre to employ specialist FGM social workers.”
[Read More: Philanthropist donates Amazon wealth]
Anita has worked on many projects over the past seven years. In 2019, they set up the Hallmark Foundation, which is a charity supporting social care projects and care workers. “I’ve been on amazing journey of discovery and collaborative work with great charities like Barnado’s,” she says.
She has recently started an enrichment programme through the foundation, helping schools deliver personal development workshops with great leaders - called ‘Enrichment in Education’.
“The students really engage,” says Anita. “They love it, and learn a lot about themselves. It’s a great opportunity for them, especially with the pandemic, to get them to think about life differently and look at how they can open up their mindset to a new type of thinking they may not have experienced before.”
Speaking about her philanthropic work, Anita says: “It’s hugely rewarding, but there’s so much more to do! Sometimes I feel as if I’m not doing enough, when I see hardship and terror in the world with children and young people.
“I feel like it’s a drop in the ocean what we are doing, it really is. That’s why I want to do more and come up with more ideas.”
Find out more about Anita’s work, and follow her journey, at anitagoyal.com.
