Baljinder

Chief Project Director

Martina

Asst Project Manager

Gurdial Singh

President - Management Committee

Gulshan

Project Officer

Katherine

A major in Geography wants to pursue a career in media and events management. She worked hard to successfully coordinate International Children's Day activities in the 4 villages of VIKAS Centre, Sotla. She also contributed towards editing the first edition of VIKAS Newsletter. A hard worker and keen traveller, did not have enough time in India and has plans to come back once again to work and travel vastly.

Jasvir Kaur

Centre Manager

Prince

Office Assistant

Yutaka

Ever smiling Japanese Samurai was a keen enthusiast of Indian culture. A student of International Affairs he worked hard on taking forward the project after the departure of the initial team of foreign volunteers. He is remembered also for his Japanese monologue sounds and his avid love for Indian food. He has intentions to change her course and pursue a career in international development, if his university rules allowed that.

Rajwinder

Secretary-cum-Treasurer

Jarnail

YouVA Cluster Coordinator

Cluster Centre Co-Owner

Victoria

A cosmopolitan Britisher from Southamton had majored in Economics and Politics. She worked on girls empowerment and English teaching. She also introduced and motivated the local girls to play team sports in during the afternoon programs in the VIKAS Centre. Indian summers were too warm for her to be comfortable but showed a great attitude to work and inter-persinal relations despite the occasional challenges of weather, food and language.

Seema

Events Coordinator

Manjit

Michael

Architect of php based version 1 of the RuralDEV information and database management software during the conceptual development phase of the program, Michael Christian Boegler, a software Engineer from Augsburg, from Germany travelled back to India again in 2008 through USA, Mexico and Thailand to help and create version 2 of RuralDEV software for thr current field adaptation and usage. He also travelled across Nepal and other destinations that he didn't travel to in 2006 and engaged in intercultural discussions on human nature, behaviours and relationships.

Jinder

Office Assistant

Jing

A law student from China with interest in Environment Conservation, she had a mystique of her own with her extra apologetic behaviour and extra sugar rich dish making. She very well worked on the village water drainage and waste management plan. Her heavily accented Chinese English and her limitations in understanding Indian accented English led to some very interestung and funny situations.

Megan

A student of University of Michigan, USA with a double-concentration in Religions and Political Science views this internship opportunity as a chance to take part in an on-the-ground translation of ideals; gaining experiences and insights that couldn't be found in textbooks or lectures. She feels that the power of ideas is immense, but can only enact change if grounded in pragmatic implementation and policy.  She successfully applied her cosmopolitan ideals and the the power of empathy through interpersonal interactions on ground and well co-ordinated implementation of the second phase of the After School Program introducing local resource persons at the VIKAS Cenre Sotla, .

Amanda

As a student of International Affairs, with an International Development concentration Amanda always wished to work within a different cultural environment than her own to help others achieve their dreams in life. She believes that education is a key factor to helping people succeed. She had an active role in developing and managing the conduct of student roll, database records and education programs at VIKAS Centre Sotla...

Ronan

A sober and very well mannered student of Industrial Engineering represented true Brazilian colours by wearing his national coloured t-shirts and caps for most of the times during his stay at the village. However, he looked like a very scholarly attractive local young man when a wore the traditional Punjabi Kurta Pyajama and the safforan Punjabi turban during his farewell party. He managed well to introduce the start of the organised sports activities and the discipline amongst the village children and youth. Mr Ronaq Singh (as he was locally known journeyed to various places in India including the last one to Himalayas during the peak of summers for a personal, spritual and emotional conquest.

Piero

A Brazilian with ancestoral background to Italy could well pass off as a local Sikh with a turban on his head was christened as 'Pyara Singh'. A student of International Relations, who has been earlier for a year to China is an avid learner of other languages and wants to develop his Hindi and Punjabi language skills as good as he has developed a fine working use of Chinese. Apart from maintaining his physique at Chandigarh he's involved in assisting to set up EduCARE India's Centre for International and Regional Development Studies', and also, promoting i.e.india (internship and education in india for foreign students and youth).

Fanny

A proud Quebec French, but at the same time cosmopolitan girl from Montreal who wants to someday become Director of an NGO, has great enthusiasm and spirit to contribute her best in the development sector. The weather or people's attitude notwithstanding she is willing to go and work in the streets of Palestine or Lebanon to make a good difference to the needy and underprivileged. Her dramatic expressions and communication skills mixed with French accent contributed to a lot of fun even during challenging times at the VIKAS home.

Ada

The leader of the VIKAS family house at Sotla loved the rural environment characterised by lush green agricultural lands and quiter and laid back lifestyle of the locals. Ada, a graduate in PR & Communications worked to develop the initial communication documnts of the start up VIKAS centre and also took some classes of English as a Second Language for the local women and girls. She moves back to Canada to pursue her Masters course in Community Planning and Development studies in Toronto through the coming years. She often qoutes Mahatama Gandhi - “You must be the CHANGE that you want to see in the world”

Linda

A typical committed and organised Dutch girl well co-ordinated and handled the introduction of Holiday school programme at the VIKAS centre. Linda was a mature catalyst to help the team members understand the objective views well when for some reason a few could not at times deal well with the cultural challenges or work ethics. She was a favourite language and life skills tutor amongst the kids and the young for whom she couldn't hold back her tears on departure from the village. She had a well planned itiniery to travel around India to enjoy nature as well as search for spritual meanings of life.