Fellows

Aditi has three years of experience in the nonprofit sector and two years experience in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India. She completed her Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from Delhi University followed by Master’s in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She interned with two nonprofit organizations in Mumbai, namely Society for Nutrition, Education, and Health Action (SNEHA) for reducing maternal and neonatal deaths, followed by work with Muskaan where she actively counseled children of parents undergoing divorce. Aditi has worked with Save the Children, India as an Institutional Partnership Officer where she was responsible for strategizing inflow of funds from active donors, such as DFID, European Union, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These donations were used to run programs for reproductive, maternal, new born, child, and adolescent health (RMNCH+A) across fourteen states in India. Previously, as a global graduate of Rio Tinto, Aditi worked in one of the most rural areas of India. She spent two years as a social analyst assessing the needs of people through various on-ground surveys and pre-feasibility studies. She also initiated an innovative project of education through tablet games for children under the influence of drugs. Her major achievements include designing and implementing a multi-year adult education and skill-building program for 315 workers of the company to boost local employment and development.

Host Organization: ChildFund International

Role at Host Organization: Aditi will support ChildFund’s Advocacy team in conducting research and policy briefs, providing operational support, analysis, support to National Offices, and contribute to raising ChildFund’s profile among US government actors and key decision makers.

Anuradha has been working in the international nonprofit sector as a human rights practitioner for over five years. Her interest in human rights began in college when she got involved in a project which provided legal aid to slum dwellers. She then interned with a criminal lawyer where she was required to work with victims of violence and abuse. This job encouraged her to join HRLN (Human Rights Law Network), a leading human rights organization of lawyers and social activists where she worked for three and a half years on issues such as rights of the children, refugees, women, disabled, prisoners, and trafficked persons. Her work included litigation as well as conducting trainings, workshops, advocacy campaigns, and other capacity building programs and policy interventions. She later joined STOP (STOP Trafficking and Oppression of children and women), a grassroots organization working on anti-human trafficking initiatives. Anuradha has traveled extensively, including to Sweden, Iran, Nepal, England and the Netherlands, attending international conferences on issues such as child protection policy, disability, and trafficking in persons. Anuradha received her LLB in 2002 from University of Bangalore, India, and was awarded the William Ross Murray scholarship in 2008 to pursue her LLM in international human rights law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Host Organization: Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services

Asmita has been actively involved in the nonprofit sector, particularly in the fight against child slavery, since childhood. Before coming on the Atlas Corps Fellowship, she was a research assistant with CORD (Collaborative Research and Dissemination), a social research group that fights for the rights of the disadvantaged through meaningful, field-based research. At the age of 10, Asmita gave a speech in a U.S. Congressional hearing and addressed a Canadian Labor Congress convention against child labor; she has continued her work for human rights and social justice throughout her education. In college, Asmita worked as a student intern at the University of Iowa’s Center for Human Rights. She has been a proponent of grassroots activism in India, starting a student movement against child labor, and also has experience working with the U.S. Senate and the ILO (International Labor Organization) in Geneva. Asmita holds a B.S. in economics from the University of Iowa.

Host Organization: International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children

Gargi has more than six years direct experience in anti-human trafficking and youth rights. Since April 2005, Gargi has been a senior program coordinator at CHILDLINE India Foundation where she coordinates and monitors programs in five northern Indian states. Working in 75 cities across India, CHILDLINE is the nation’s first 24-hour emergency phone service for children in need of care and protection. Gargi also assists in the arrest and prosecution of traffickers, for which she has posed as a decoy client and rescued 15 minors from trafficking through police raids in Delhi. Previously, Gargi was the city coordinator for CHILDLINE Delhi (2003-05) and the center coordinator with the Prayas Institute of Juvenile Justice (2001-03), a NGO working for marginalized children, women and youth in India, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Gargi has been invited to speak about her work in trafficking and sexual abuse on many occasions, including a regional trafficking conference in Tokyo, Japan, at the U.S. Embassy in Delhi, and most recently by Scotland’s Strathclyde Police in June 2006. In 2004, she was selected as one of the “50 Dynamic Women” by the U.S. Ambassador in Delhi, and in 2005, was nominated as a Young Indian Professional Leader by the U.S. Embassy. Gargi earned her B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Delhi.

Host Organization: Ashoka Youth Venture

Joyeta is a public policy enthusiast from India with over two years of experience in the non-profit sector. An Economics graduate from the University of Delhi, Joyeta has worked on several socio-economic and political projects with organisations like the Centre for Research, Planning, and Action and the Centre for Civil Society in India. She has also worked on the rights of street vendors and organised a national consultation to evaluate the protection of two national rivers while interning at Manushi Sangathan. At Social Watch India, where she most recently worked, Joyeta enhanced the Members of Parliament Composite Performance Index. She has done significant research on the functioning of the Parliament in India, and assisted in writing the Citizens’ Report on Governance and Development, the annual publication of Social Watch India. Joyeta is passionate about developing and working on national policies related to urban housing and sanitation, and has visited slums around the city to evaluate their sanitary conditions. One of her goals is to create a viable community development model to improve issues of housing and sanitation. Joyeta is a Director at the Youth of Policy and Dialogue, India’s first youth-led think tank. She has successfully led the organisation to grow and, with her team, recently conducted a national event, The G20 Dialogue Series.

Host Organization: Habitat for Humanity International

Karuna holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the Indian Institute of Human Rights. Additionally, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi in India, and a Graduate degree in Information Technology from the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), in India. She has extensive experience working with communities and the government sector, as well as six years of experience in the non-profit sector. Karuna has engaged in volunteer work with prominent nonprofits such as Prayas, Project WHY and Rotaract in India. Initially, Karuna enjoyed a brief exposure in the corporate sector with IBM and Adecco India. In her most recent role, Karuna worked as a Program Officer with Multiple Action Research Group (MARG). Her experience includes project management and implementation in the areas of empowerment, gender & governance, media and policy advocacy, youth development and capacity building on projects supported by UNICEF, UNDP and Oxfam India. She has closely worked with the media, advocacy groups, and the Delhi Task Force to combat trafficking and to mobilize support and create awareness of child labor. Prior to MARG, Karuna worked with the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), one of India’s leading non-profits, contributing to multi-donor projects in order to combat human trafficking. As a part of the Delhi Task Force on Child Labor, she led teams in rescuing more than 300 victims of human trafficking from Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal, Bangladesh & Nepal. Karuna is passionate and committed to the cause of working towards bettering lives of marginalized women and children.

Host Organization : CARE International

Role at Host Organization: Karuna will be engaged in supporting research and analysis around implementation of donor and government policies addressing early forced marriage in Bangladesh and Nepal and will contribute to the development of an advocacy strategy to influence key stakeholders at global and national level. Karuna will also be engaged in supporting the Tipping Point team in strategic planning and project implementation including activities aimed at capacity building, communications and knowledge management.

Meher has ten years of experience in the citizen sector, both in India and South Asia. Documentation, evaluation and research are the core areas of her experience. Her experience also includes management of projects on issues such as women’s empowerment, gender and governance, child labor, disability, youth development and NGO capacity building. Her most recent experience was working at JAGORI (‘Awaken, Women’), a feminist group raising consciousness on violence, health, education and other issues critical to women. There, she researched and developed resource material to support the organization’s advocacy work on legal rights, food security rights and the health of women. Prior to this, Meher conceptualized and initiated a development program for youth called YES (Youth Enrichment Services) for a corporate body in Delhi. From 1999-2006, Meher worked at Association for Stimulating Know How where she coordinated the Evaluation, Research & Documentation Unit. She was primarily involved in planning, conducting, supervising and documenting evaluations and studies for national and international agencies. During that time she also managed projects on gender and governance in Rajasthan and economic empowerment of Muslim women in Uttar Pradesh. She organized women into groups and coordinated and facilitated trainings and other capacity building inputs to help women meet their development objectives. Meher also coordinated the advocacy component of a project providing developmental opportunities to children working in household brassware units in Uttar Pradesh. From 2004-2005 Meher was with Saarthak where she coordinated a UNIFEM project in tsunami affected communities of Sri Lanka. She was involved in the process of gendering the reconstruction work and addressing psychosocial impacts on women and children. She also worked closely with local organizations and the government, enhancing their capacities to identify and address gender related vulnerabilities after a disaster. Meher holds a B.S. in sciences from Delhi University and a M.A. in social work from Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.

Host Organization: Population Action International (PAI)

Natasha conceptualized and implemented a nation-wide program aimed at sensitizing the youth and mobilizing thought and action around the cause of women’s empowerment while working at CARE India as the Youth Engagement Coordinator. Previously, as part of Ashoka’s Full Economic Citizenship initiative, Natasha supported marketing and communication efforts for the ‘Global Summit of Housing Entrepreneurs’ held in Barcelona, Spain. She also assisted volunteer teams with strategies for onsite implementation and event delivery. Natasha has held multiple leadership positions in AIESEC, the world’s largest youth-run organization, which she was a part of for three years. She partnered with thirty-five NGOs focusing on HIV/AIDS, education, and child rights, and implemented innovative social projects that combined international exchange programs with local awareness events. She organized Delhi University’s first HIV/AIDS testing drive and facilitated HIV/AIDS and reproductive health workshops for over 500 students. Additionally, she led six diverse and multicultural teams throughout her tenure and in 2009, was selected to represent AIESEC India as a cultural envoy to Turkey. In 2010, she led a five member international team and handled media relations and PR for India’s largest youth congregation comprising of 700 young leaders from 110 countries. Through these experiences, Natasha has honed strong communication, project management, and leadership skills and has grown into a committed and ambitious nonprofit professional. Natasha has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Delhi, India, and is a strong advocate for women and children’s rights.

Host Organization : PYXERA Global/US Center for Citizen Diplomacy