Rizwan Adatia is an accomplished entrepreneur with business across businesses in 10 African Countries, employing over 4000. He has passion for community development and works at the grass root for uplifting lives among the rural communities across Africa and India.
Presently Rizwan is a social entrepreneur but his story began as a teenage boy who came from the sleepy town of Porbandar and worked his way to create value not only for himself but for communities wherever he went. He is also the Chairman of COGEF Group & VISION EXPORTS.
Incorporated in 2007, Vision Exports FZC is a rapidly developing trading network that aspires to establish long lasting relationships between buyers and suppliers worldwide. The company’s head office is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with branch offices in Yiwu, China as well as Nairobi, Kenya. Having initially focused entirely on fulfilling customer requirements in the Eastern African region. Vision Exports FZC has now mastered the craft of cross trade with multiple warehousing facilities globally and enhanced its capacity to meet requirements in any part of the world.
Over time, Vision Exports FZC has also developed an exciting range of in house products emphasizing elegance, durability, and value for money. Today, Rizwan heads a global business and a not-for-profit organization having operations in Africa across DR Congo, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Madagascar – he leads a team that works tirelessly to build a multi-sector approach through customized solutions, responding to needs of marginalized communities.
The efforts, commitment have accumulated support and partnership through like-minded partners who joined the initiative to expand the scale and scope of community work and its mandate to address inequality. The idea is to develop innovative, practical solutions with public involvement to bring skills, healthcare, education, financial deepening, and self-reliance. Rizwan aims towards reinforcing recognition, and determination of a renewed promise to work harder. Since conception the community work has touched upon the lives of over 600000 extremely poor households through an array of programs in healthcare, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, economic integration (for women and youth) and interventions in humanitarian response.
During the pandemic, Rizwan’s team reached over 100000 vulnerable households through special initiatives around health and nutrition. Over 200000 meals were served, reaching about 17000 people. Water and sanitation form an integral part of our long-term work that protects households from infections during pandemic. It has been an incredible effort considering that about 90 per cent of the funding for social development initiatives is contributed through Rizwan’s personal philanthropy. It is a commitment to promoting community philanthropy and aiming to pledge bulk of his personal wealth for the promotion of public causes, especially espousing the cause of the most marginalized. Rizwan is the Chairman of RAF Global which actively collaborates with the Government, civil society and the private sector, individuals who share similar vision, mission, and values.
The NGO partners with more than 100 organizations, and communities in the specific areas for better and improved results. Collectively, the reach is more than one million people through long-term and emergency programs. What started as a humble beginning of personal philanthropy to working on sustainable international development with a long-term focus with significant presence in Africa and Asia, RAF Global has come a long way. RAF Global is one of the leading international NGO employing some of the finest international development professionals, working tirelessly to improve the quality of life for have-nots. RAF Global focuses on five main verticals – Economic Integration and Livelihood Support for Women and Youth, Climate Smart Agriculture, Health and Nutrition Initiative, Education and Technology Program Good Governance Programmed, Humanitarian Response.
Our initiatives have benefited over a million households, not only in improving their quality of life, but also guarding fragile livelihoods particularly during the pandemic. Plethora of development initiatives around health and hygiene, drinking water and sanitation, education, and both on-farm and non-farm livelihoods has brought about visible and lasting change in the living conditions in some of the remotest and inaccessible geographies that RAF Global serve.
