A 58-year-old Dubai-based Indian education entrepreneur has pledged to give away more than half of his wealth for helping teachers around the world by signing a popular philanthropic campaign.
Kerala-born Sunny Varkey joins the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Indian Wipro chairman Azim Premji by signing 'The Giving Pledge' campaign.
'I was fortunate that I grew up in a family where charity was ingrained in us from a very early age. Even when my father earned a small amount, a large portion was shared with the community we lived in, sometimes at the cost of our own comfort,' Varkey said.
The Giving Pledge was founded by business magnate Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda to help address society's most pressing problems by inviting the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropic and charitable causes.
Varkey is the founder of Gems Education, the world's leading education provider, which covers around 140,000 students across the world from more than 153 nationalities.
He is also founder of the Varkey Foundation, which trains teachers around the world and in 2014 launched the Global Teacher Prize, a US$1 million prize to celebrate the teaching profession.
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