Team

Dola Mohapatra

Executive Director

Dola Mohapatra is the Executive Director of Rise Against Hunger India. Mr. Mohapatra was assigned the responsibility in 2015 to establish the Indian regional hub for the organization’s meal packaging and meal distribution programs. He has been instrumental in building a strong foundation for the organization by designing and implementing some successful program models while working parallelly to obtain necessary government and regulatory approvals as well as setting in place the governance processes for the organization.  Rise Against Hunger India is now a tax-exempt, FCRA certified organization (which gives its eligibility to receive overseas funds). 

With rich and extensive experience in international and national NGOs spanning nearly 3 decades, Mr. Mohapatra has led large-scale program operations and developed program portfolio across the globe including India, USA, Thailand, East Timor, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and various other locations. He served as Regional Director of ChildFund International, as well as the CEO/Executive Director of ChildFund India in Bangalore.  He is the co-founder of WorkMatterz, a Management Consulting firm that provides HR and Management support to startups, business enterprises, national and international non-profits. He has been living in Bangalore for over 15 years, serving the disadvantaged community and raising CSR funds for water, sanitation, education and health projects.

Mr. Mohapatra graduated with MA in English Literature from Sambalpur University, MSW in Labor Law from Santiniketan (Visva Bharati), and an MPhil in Social Work from University.

Naomi Joshua

Director – Operations

Naomi Joshua’s primary responsibility entails directing, managing, overseeing and mentoring our ever-growing volunteer and corporate engagement teams located across the country.  She is also responsible to develop robust operational systems and guidelines, and ensure that everyone in Rise Against Hunger India is fully trained in meal packaging, storage and distribution standards.  She also looks after HR and people matters for Rise Against Hunger India.

Naomi has been actively involved with  Rise Against Hunger India’s activities as a core volunteer since the day India program was launched in 2015.  Later in 2018, she took up a part time assignment handling HR and Operations.

Naomi has over 25 years of experience in Operations, HR & Project Management.  As the operations manager and team leader in her previous assignments, she has helped in designing operational systems, developing manuals, tools and guidelines for an organization that grew almost 200% within 3 years.  Due to her excellent organizational capabilities, she was nominated to be part of an international task force that conducted organizational diagnostics in various countries in Asia.

Naomi holds a post-graduate diploma in HR Management, a post-graduate diploma in Systems Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Electronics & Mathematics.

Music is Naomi’s passion & she has been part of music groups & choirs all her life.

Mahadev Hansda

Head of Programs

Mahadev Hansda provides programmatic leadership, and guides Rise Against Hunger India’s program directions, strategies, approaches to realize the organization’s vision. Together with thematic experts and program specialists, he formulates program guidelines and processes for effective execution of the Program Pathways. He also directly oversees the process of field level implementation of various nutrition specific and nutrition sensitive initiatives. As the Head of Programs, Mahadev also spearheads initiatives for measuring the effectiveness, impact and sustainability in Rise Against Huger India’s work. Mahadev is a part of the leadership team in the organization.

Mahadev has twenty-six years of professional experience in a wide spectrum of designing, developing and delivering social development programs and Humanitarian Response programs. Over the years, Mahadev has worked with different vulnerable groups such as children, women and people belonging to Adivasi (indigenous groups), Dalit (deprived groups), fishermen communities, persons with disability, people living with HIV/AIDS. He has directly worked in field to deal with issues related to education, health & nutrition, livelihoods & food security, governance, child protection, natural resource regeneration. Through his diverse experience in the field, Mahadev has developed deep insight into the ground realities of poor and excluded communities in different states of India.

Immediately before joining Rise Against Hunger India, Mahadev was working with Save the Children (Bal Raksha Bharat) as the State Head for Jharkhand. Prior to that he has worked with national and international development organizations such as the Department of International Development (DFID) India, ActionAid Association and Foundation for Ecological Security (FES).

Mahadev Hansda has completed his Post Graduation Diploma in Rural Development from Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi. He has received Best Social Worker Award received from Xavier Institute of Social Services, 1997, Best West Bengal Aicufer Award for 1994-1995, in a program held at St. Xavier’s’ College, Kolkata from Mother Teresa (now Saint Teresa of Kolkata) and Jharkhand Vibhuti Veer Birsa Samman for Social Work, 2020.

Henry Rozario

Finance Manager

As Senior Finance Officer, Henry Rozario’s primary role involves day to day financial management of the organization, liaison with statutory Auditors, timely filing of annual, quarterly and monthly returns, MIS reporting to the management, prepare annual, bi-annual, monthly financial report to the management/Board, scrutinize all bill and invoices from the vendors and staff settlement before recommending for final approval and payments. monitoring field office account and timely disbursement of funds for continuing the projects.

Before joining Rise Against Hunger India, Henry was providing financial consultancy services to a number of NGOs spread across south India.  Prior to that, Henry has worked as Finance Manager at New Entity for Social Action (NESA) comprised of a wide variety and diversity of 42 partners in South India.  Leading a team of 5 accounts and finance staff,  Henry helped these partner organizations strengthen their overall financial management, book keeping, statutory compliance and general governance.

Henry comes with significant audit and financial review experience in his capacity as the audit manager with two major reputed Chartered Accountancy firms in South India specialized in non-profit accounting.

Henry has a B. Com degree in Madras University. He has also done article-ship with M/s. Simon Rodrigues & Associates in Bangalore and partly completed the Chartered Accountancy course.

Sieti Banu Immanuel

Program Manager- Food and Nutrition Security (Livelihoods)

Sieti Banu Immanuel, through Empowering Communities is mandated to anchor the food security program of Rise Against Hunger India. Sieti works with the field teams and community groups to lead project design and development process to achieve sustainable food and nutrition security at the household level. He is the lead technical manager for Rise Against Hunger India’s signature programs around building nutrition sensitive value chains (NSVC), enabling communities to adapt and pursue diverse livelihood options, building community resilience and climate change action. As the thematic expert on food security and livelihood, Sieti’s role involves establishing linkages and liaison with nutrition-related agencies & government departments to enhance program capacity on the ground.

Sieti is passionate about environment and have about 19 years of experience in domains of Natural Resource Management (NRM), natural regeneration, livelihoods, climate actions, community resilience and agriculture. He is deeply committed to make communities and people aware of the ecosystems they depend on such as water, land, food, soil, agriculture etc. and work towards better management of these natural resources. He has completed his bachelor’s degree in agriculture and Masters in Environmental Studies from Loughborough University, UK. Prior to joining Rise Against Hunger India, Sieti has worked with different national and international organizations such as World Vision India, Action for Food Production (AFPRO) etc.

Sieti is based in Bangalore with wife Helen Jesie Sieti and two daughters Phoebe Kirubai Sieti, Joanna Thuthi Sieti. As a nature observer, Sieti enjoys spending time observing and appreciating the beauty of the natural world in the likes of its wildlife, plants, landscapes, or weather phenomena.

Samit Pal

Programs Manager, East

As the Programs Manager, Samit Kumar Pal is responsible for smooth and effective implementation of projects in Clusters in the Eastern Region – typically a cluster is characterized by a group of districts with high rate of malnutrition, food insecurity, anemia and similar indicators.  As part of its strategic plan, Rise Against Hunger India has identified several clusters throughout the country to work with the community towards addressing root causes of hunger and malnutrition.  The first two such Clusters are active in Eastern Region (Odisha, Chhattisgarh, AP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal).  Samit’s primary responsibility is to lead the cluster teams in designing and executing projects that are aligned with our Pathways to End Hunger. 

Samit comes with nearly 10 years of program management experience with local and international organizations and has implemented projects on Livelihood, Agriculture, Value Chain Management,  Disaster Management.  Most recently, he was responsible for handling multi-location projects in the Eastern Zone of ChildFund India supervising a team of nearly 20 field level professionals.

Samit has a master’s degree in Social Work with additional diploma in statistics and CSR program management.  He is now based in Deoghar, Jharkhand with his wife Manjulata Singh and daughter Sushree Samrudhi.  When he has free time, he loves interacting with people, playing cricket gardening and traveling.

Hatim Dawasaz

Founder Trustee

Hatim is a founding trustee and the Settler of Rise Against Hunger India. Hatim works for Cisco Systems as IT Operations Manager and Global Extranet Service Manager. Hatim has been with Cisco Systems India managing IT Infrastructure Services for Cisco Offshore Development Centre which is spread across 500 offshore sites globally.  With an overall experience of about 18 years, Hatim has held various roles on IT Enterprise Infrastructure built for Cisco offices across India & SAARC; managed various IT Acquisition Integrations and also played Client Experience Lead role for Cisco India.

Over and above his full time job, Hatim leads Cisco Connected Disability Awareness Network (CDAN) for APJC (Asia Pac, Japan & Greater China), an Employee Resource Organization (ERO), which supports Disability within the Organization as part of Cisco’s Inclusion and Collaboration Organization. Leading CDAN is not just a responsibility for him but is his passion and takes pride in being part of the CDAN APJC community as he is able to connect and fulfil the needs of the differently-abled to build Assistive Technologies with a lot of focus on Accessibility to be integrated into Cisco Products. Apart from focus on Assistive Technologies, he also helped in introducing other tracks in CDAN community like Partnering with External Organizations, PWD Forum, PWD Talent Acquisition, Inclusive Environment and Disability Awareness.

Hatim is very passionately involved in other Giving Back activities & events including mobilizing and leading an active citizen support group in his neighbourhood apartment association that conducts a number of volunteering activities from time to time.

Hatim Amreliwala

Founder Trustee

Hatim is a successful entrepreneur dealing with real estate, mall-management and other ventures.  His company, Integrated Mall Management & Retail Solutions, works in many locations in southern India providing onsite management to many well-known malls, properties and commercial hubs.

Hatim is an inspirational leader who takes personal interest in social activities that uplift the deprived population. He spends personal time in various humanitarian activities.  He travels extensively on work and has gathered wide-range experience in diverse areas.  His passion is visible during volunteering activities where he puts his heart and soul.

An MBA graduate from a leading management institute in India, Hatim has previously worked with one of the major private banks of India.  Originally from Mumbai, he has now made Bangalore his home.  He is a serious long-drive enthusiast and does most of his travels in the country driving his own car.

Kalpana Subbaramappa

Board Member

Kalpana Subbaramappa is an engineer in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and also holds a Masters in Information Technology.  Kalpana is an Analytics Specialist with more than 20 years of experience in developing analytics solutions for BFSI, Retail, Healthcare and Technology industries. Her interest is to design and develop bespoke learning programs in the emerging areas of Robotics, Data science and Business Analytics.

She has worked for Genpact & Protract Education and also as an Independent Consultant in Analytics.  In her current role as the Programme Manager at IIIT Bangalore (IIITB) she manages a Government of Karnataka funded Centre of Excellence on Machine Learning and Robotics.

Kalpana has designed analytics courses for an online education provider Skillspeed and SME for the Post Graduate program offered by UpGrad in collaboration with IIITB.  She has also conducted master classes and training programs on new horizons of technology such as Analytics, Cloud, Blockchain, IOT, Automation/robotics, Cybersecurity etc. She has delivered lectures at IIM Udaipur and IIM Indore.

Kalpana has supported various companies such as Accenture, Sony, Samsung R&D, Finserv, Bajaj Finserv in their design and delivery of programs.

Kalpana is an avid traveller, keen observer of local culture, language and heritage.  She is also associated with Kathalaya as a story-teller (data, travels, science & math).

Deepali Thakur

Board Member

Dr. Deepali Thakur is a healthcare professional with a decade of experience in hospital operations, service delivery, project management with a focus on start-up ventures in the private sector. She has completed her Masters in Hospital and Healthcare Systems Management from BITS Pilani, India.

Dr. Deepali began her career with Apollo Hospitals, and was the Head for service delivery for low-cost model of hospitals for a start-up. Currently, she heads the Indian entities for Noora Health in India in the capacity of Director of Operations and Finance.

Sherebanu Milky

Board Member

Dr Sherebanu Milky is Homoeopathic Physician, Dietician & Nutritionist and a Nutrigenetic Counsellor with over 20 years of experience.  She holds a Bachelors degree in Homeopathic Medicine & Surgery, Certification in Advanced Homeopathy, Diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics and a  Certification in Translational Nutrigenetics. She treats her patients with a holistic approach covering mental & physical wellbeing.

Dr. Sherebanu is considered a well known figure in the area of nutrigenetics which is one of the cutting edge developments in the field of food and nutrition.  She conducts workshops and seminars on topics such as gut health, children’s health and has even organized special sessions focusing on senior citizens’ health.  She has done several GUT REBUILD workshops on a one-on-one basis with remarkable results.

Apart from being a doctor, she is also a mother of two which has ignited in her a special interest in managing paediatric cases.  Her interests extend further to being an ardent fitness enthusiast which brings a repertoire of activities like Running, Trekking and Gym workouts under her umbrella.

Kamlesh Nichani

Advisory Board Member

Kamlesh Nichani, is a senior professional with long years of experience in handing  business continuity, disaster recovery, and risk management programs in enterprise setting.  Currently, he heads the Risk & Compliance, Business Continuity Management at Accenture, Bangalore and in this capacity, he provides leads a team that provides solutions in the areas of emergency management, risk mitigation, business contingency planning, and disaster recovery.  With significant experience in Information Security Management System (ISMS), he facilitates certification audit and client contract security audits.

Kamlesh is also very actively involved in citizen centric community welfare services and has led multiple civic programs involving thousands of volunteers at the ward and municipality levels.  Under his leadership, lake reclamation and renovation work was taken up by the government agencies.  Kamlesh has also created a platform for civic participation which encourages dialogue between common citizens and various government departments.  Kamlesh is a much sought after person in situations that needed immediate attention or interventions.

THE FOUNDER

A vision to end world hunger

In 1998, envisioning a world without hunger, Ray Buchanan — a United Methodist minister — founded Rise Against Hunger (formerly Stop Hunger Now). After enlisting as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War, Ray Buchanan quickly recognized that accomplishing a mission required “commitment to something larger than yourself.” Over the past three decades, that principle has driven Ray’s mission to eradicate world hunger.

As a divinity graduate student at Duke University, Ray began working with the poor and hungry. He continued that work at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received his master’s degree in divinity, and as a pastor at five rural United Methodist churches in Virginia. As a pastor, Ray joined the effort to save the lives of starving Ethiopians during the 1973-75 famine in Ethiopia.

Driving Ray’s hunger work is the recognition that “ending hunger is more than just feeding people.” So Rise Against Hunger “focuses its feeding programs in areas where we can see transformational development,” he says.

Ray embodies the ideal of a servant leader. And he understands that volunteers and organizations working together can build a global movement that will stimulate the political will to marshal the resources that are essential — and available — to eradicate hunger.

Rise Against Hunger has realized positive, annual growth mainly through expansion of the meal packaging program into new communities. Rise Against Hunger continues to further Ray’s legacy of commitment both to domestic and international crisis response including relief from famine, natural and manmade disasters and health epidemics.READ LESS