DEV Foundation🌱
Our Story
Where it all began: a birthday and a tree
In 2011, one family made a small promise on a birthday. Fourteen years later, it's 50,000 trees and counting.
Read the storyWhat we did, who it helped, and what we learned along the way.
In 2011, one family made a small promise on a birthday. Fourteen years later, it's 50,000 trees and counting.
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Child SafetyOver six months, with a fire-safety expert, we prepared 300 orphaned children to stay calm and act.
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LearningWe handed a hundred children a clay pot and a brush — and watched imagination take over.
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AwarenessAs Ahmedabad baked, we taught children how to spot heat stroke and keep themselves safe.
Read the storyEvery big thing starts small. Ours started with a birthday and a single sapling.
In 2011, the idea for DEV Foundation took root with Kartik Panchal. The plan was almost too simple to call a plan: every time someone in the family had a birthday, they would plant a tree. And every World Environment Day, they would plant again. No banners, no committee, no name — just a family and a shovel, showing up year after year.
Slowly, the rest of the family joined in. The count grew quietly — hundreds of trees, then thousands. Many were planted across Ahmedabad; many more were gifted to people to plant and care for themselves, because the goal was never just trees. It was the habit of caring for them.
Fourteen years later, that birthday ritual has become around 50,000 trees — and an organised foundation working across the environment, education, child safety and community welfare. But the heart of it hasn't changed. We still plant a tree on every birthday. We always will.
A fire doesn't wait for you to figure out what to do. That's exactly why we started this program.
Over six months, DEV Foundation partnered with a fire-safety expert to train 300 orphaned children in how to respond when danger strikes. We deliberately ran it as three batches of 100 children rather than one big session — because safety isn't a lecture you sit through, it's a skill you practise. Smaller groups meant every child could ask questions, try things hands-on, and actually remember what to do.
They learned the basics that save lives: how to stay low, how to get out, who to call, and how not to panic. For children who don't always have an adult to turn to, that knowledge is more than useful — it's a kind of protection they carry with them.
We came away certain of one thing: preparedness is a gift you can give a child that lasts a lifetime.
Give a child a plain clay pot and a brush, and watch what happens.
For our creative art competition, we brought together 100 students to paint clay pots and clay water cups. We chose clay on purpose — traditional, humble materials that connect children to something older than any screen, and that they could take home and keep.
What followed was the best kind of chaos: bright colours, bold patterns, and a hundred children completely absorbed in making something their own. Creativity isn't a luxury add-on to a child's growth — it builds confidence, focus and pride, the same qualities that help them everywhere else in life.
By the end, every child walked out holding something they had made with their own hands. That feeling — I made this — is exactly what we hoped to give them.
The heat this year wasn't just uncomfortable. For many, it was dangerous.
As Ahmedabad endured a record-breaking summer, DEV Foundation ran a seminar to teach children how to recognise the warning signs of heat stroke and how to keep themselves cool and safe. For an environment-first foundation, this work sits exactly where it should — at the meeting point of a warming planet and the children who will live in it.
We kept it practical: drink water before you feel thirsty, stay out of the harshest sun, recognise dizziness and cramps early, and help a friend who looks unwell. Simple habits, but in a summer like this one, life-saving ones.
Protecting nature and protecting children have always been the same job to us. This summer made that clearer than ever.
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