A girl reacts as a health worker collects her swab sample to test for COVID-19 in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. (Rajanish Kakade/AP)
“Are you ok? Did Mesho get vaccinated yet?” I emailed my cousins in India about my uncle with chronic medical issues as I slowly began to understand the growing devastation from surging COVID-19 cases.
For many Indian-Americans, the flickers of hope for normalcy in our lives here in the United States have been washed away by concern for our families in the midst of the crisis in India.
As I wrote, my mind jumped from worry for their safety to memories of my childhood visits to my ancestral home. I remember the first time I walked into a temple off the busy streets of Kolkata and found another boy who pleaded with me for money. Under his tattered clothes, I saw his emaciated body. Under the dirt that covered his face, I saw sad, longing eyes. His body and his being were ravaged by poverty. At 8 years old, I could not understand how our
Kolkata
West-bengal
India
Bangladesh
United-states
Narendra-modi
Samir-chaudhuri
Child-in-need-institute
Did-mesho
Need-institute
Cyclone-amphan
Bangladesh-the
BSohini
I am an intrepid intrapreneur and social change enthusiast who has 25+ years of experience in the development sector. Currently I am President & CEO at Breakthrough, a global human rights organization working in U.S. and India using multi-media, popular culture, leadership development and community mobilization strategies to promote values of dignity, equality and justice. I lead Resource Mobilisation to establish a strong resource base and sustainability, am the chief strategist and work at transforming the organisation into a founder-led organisation to a professionally managed one.
I started my career working on an Unicef-funded project to create communication materials for the Year of the Girl-child with active participation from rural women in the villages of West Bengal hosted by Child In Need Institute (CINI), a premier Mother and Child Health organization in India. In 1992 I helped set up a eevika Development Society, a breakaway group from CINI, focussed on e
China
Japan
Delhi
India
Calcutta
West-bengal
Resource-centre
European-venture-philanthropy-association
Development-society
Child-health
Child-in-need-institute