Rachna belongs to the Himalayan state of Uttrakhand.  She has an M.Phil degree in Linguistics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Rachna traveled to Hong Kong, where she worked as an Associate Professor for two and a half years.  During her undergraduate studies she worked with street children and homeless adults in Delhi.  She has worked with various organizations within Uttrakhand and has written on women issues.  She founded ANKURI in 2000 when she realized a need to work with rural communities of her area.  She has two children and spends her time between Dehradun and Delhi.  She is widely traveled in the urban and rural areas of India.  A blend of various cultures and identities helped her in evolving as a more aware human being and in developing the desire to work with rural communities to help empower themselves.

Shail lives in Dehradun. Grand daughter of Late Rai Bahadur Rama Dutt Raturi, she has been a close observer of the changes that have overrun the hill state of Uttrakhand.  She is on the board of several grass root organizations dealing with women’s issues.  An alumna of M.K.P., the only women’s college of Dehradun, she is the President of the Alumni Association. Shail writes extensively. Her life as the wife of a senior army officer made her aware of the richness of design concepts as she traveled through rural and urban India. Widely traveled both in India and abroad, Shail has two children and three grandchildren.

Susan Yacubian Klein – Organization Resource Planner

Susan has extensive experience working in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) world having spent 13 years in Armenia in the former Soviet Union first developing and establishing a craft centre to provide income for women.  The centre is now thriving as an export business of children’s knitwear and employs over 600 women in a cottage craft industry.  After the center was on its feet, Susan worked for 7 years with Armenia Tree Project, an environmental organization, doing poverty reduction trough micro-enterprise development with farmers in deforested, mountainous areas of Armenia.  She now brings her skills to ANKURI.  Her children live and work in the US and she travels between the US, Armenia and India.

Priscilla Diamond – Friend of ANKURI

When Priscilla Diamond came to India in 2005, she heard about a our programme and wanted to know more.   Priscilla believed in what we were doing and immediately offered to help by pledging a yearly donation .She is now in the process of setting up a library for the children of the villages. Priscilla has extensive experience in the Education Department.   She lives in California with her husband.  She has been very constant in her research and help, both emotional and financial.

Angela Jane Roberts – Volunteer & Friend of ANKURI

Angela lives in Gloucestershire, England with her four children.  Her eldest, Tom is at Oxford University and her daughter Jessica, who wants to work with street children, is hoping to join ANKURI. Jane is a nurse by profession and completely immersed in Indian culture and support of ANKURI.

Sohan Singh – Ground Operations Faciliator

Sohan was elected Village Headman in 2003 and since that time has started many innovative programmes in the village such as raising funds for toilets in each house, clean drinking water and electricity and village fruit plantations.  He is an extremely supportive and proactive person who, with his wife Jaishree, has assisted ANKURI since its inception.