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Our newest Jeevansaathi Ravishankar Arunachalam, has worn many hats in his nine years as an AID volunteer.He was the co-editor of AID News, Executive Board projects coordinator, founder of the water cell at AID Austin, coordinator of post-earthquake efforts in Gujarat, and Hundred Block Plan coordinator. On his return to India in 2002, Ravishankar became the joint secretary at AID India. At AID India, he has worked on the secondary school science education program, on the equitech program on low-cost solutions for data collection, in tsunami relief & rehabilitation efforts, with Tamil Nadu Science Foundation and other groups in the campaign against construction of a Coke bottling plant in Gangaikondan, Tamil Nadu. 
Ravishankar Arunachalam |
Although Ravishankar was officially a faculty member at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, he found himself spending the majority of his time and energy on AID India activities. Hence he was a natural candidate for an AID Jeevansaathiship. He plans to continue work on current projects, and ramp up his involvement in livelihood generation and agricultural issues as well as the Gangaikondan anti-coke Campaign. Ravishankar believes in providing access to enabling knowledge bases and technical skills to both urban and rural communities so they can work on issues that matter to them. As he says, “given resources and freedom, people are generally smart when making choices about their lives." --- Sudha Nagavarapu is member of the Executive Board of AID. |
