Biography

Bindu Gautam, 45 has been working for ActionAid Equity and Access Programme as Social Inclusion and Voice Promotion Specialist since February 2006. She has the main responsibility to facilitate and support equity and access partners and provide technical support for social mobilization, behavioral change communication, capacity building and independent voice capturing.  Before ActionAid Bindu worked for several organizations: IIDS/UNIFEM, UNICEF, WOREC, MGEP/UNDP, CWISH/Save the Children etc as freelance consultant (more than five years) particularly in the field of social research and program assessment/evaluation and training. Before that she worked for Plan International (71/2 years) as Sr. Program Manager and with different capacity and a National NGO (21/2 years) as Sociologist.  She has had the opportunity to develop training, research and program development skills through her activities while working for different organizations. She has had the opportunity to be trained and to be trainer to train professionals of different partner organizations. She has experience of conducting training on Gender, trafficking, child rights, women's rights, rights based approach and advocacy. She also has experience in several research/studies, program design/development, assessment and evaluation as a team leader and with associates. Bindu holds a Master's degree in Sociology from the Tribhuwan University of Nepal. She keeps interest in women and child rights issues and to advocate for addressing such issues.

Biography

Christine Alai (27) is a Human Rights Lawyer and Advocate, working with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. She has experience and a keen interest in legal and policy analysis; Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Women and Child rights; Human Rights Based Approach to development and programming; democracy and governance.

Christine has previously worked with the American Bar Association Africa Anti-Corruption Initiative, L’etwal International Law and Policy Institute for Contemporary Problems and the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission. She has had opportunity to train organisations in Kenya on human rights, women’s participation and representation, child rights, corporate social responsibility, Constitutional reform and HeRWAI.

Christine holds an LL.B. Degree from the University of Nairobi and is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. Her dissertation was on the analysis of the efficacy of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes and Public Officers Ethics Acts of Kenya. She has also received professional training on conflict prevention, women’s health and sexual reproductive rights and project management.

Her hobbies include swimming, playing the piano and theatre.

Biography

Mariana Winocur, a Mexican citizen and native Argentine, has worked in journalism for over 15 years. Mariana was an editor at La Voz del Interior, a newspaper with the highest circulation within the interior of Argentina, where she wrote on health issues and edited a weekly health supplement. Mariana also worked as a correspondent at the publishing company Atlántida, where she wrote on politics and current affairs across a group of magazines, with a focus on women’s health issues. Other positions Mariana has held include head of the press office at the Argentina Department of Education and the Department of Labor in Córdoba. Mariana currently serves as Communications Coordinator for GIRE, the Information Group on Reproductive Choice, in Mexico City, where she coordinates the communications and press strategies for GIRE’s reproductive rights work. In this position, she has coordinated various informational campaigns to diffuse information about women’s right to health. She currently collaborates with several Mexican magazines. Mariana is a native Spanish-speaker and is fluent in English.

Biography

Dr Raana Zahid is a medical doctor specializing in Public Health. She has been affiliated with Behbud Association of Pakistan and World Population Foundation (WPF) over the past 12 years. She is a fellow of the Population Leadership Program (PLP) of the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, USA, after which she also completed her Master Public Health from UW. She is actively involved in activities of all leadership programs in Pakistan, beside working independently as a free lance consultant.

Over her career Dr Zahid has provided Reproductive Health services in rural and urban settings; provided Sexual and Reproductive Health information to Adolescents, managed a Life Skills programme for Adolescents, conducted advocacy campaigns for the inclusion of life skills in the school curriculum. She pretested Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument (HeRWAI) and used HeRWAI to conduct a policy analysis of the Gender Action Reform Plan of the Government of Pakistan.

Her unique work experience, coupled with Leadership training as a fellow of the Population Leadership Program has been instrumental in developing her interest in Health and Human Rights issues. She has plans to transfer her interest in policy advocacy and Health Rights through active lobbying with civil society organizations in Pakistan.

Biography

Mr. Gokul Mishra (37) works for Britain Nepal Medical Trust (BNMT) as Project Manager in Rights Based Approach Project. He started working with BNMT since 1992.He is responsible for programme planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of Rights Based Approach Project. In addition, he is also accountable to develop the project proposal and submiting to the different donors, implement Health Rights of Women Assement Instrument (HeRWAI) activities in the organisation and facilitates to the Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) for their instituional strengthening and organisational development.

Mr. Mishra has a master’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Tribhuvan University of Nepal and Post Graduation Diploma in Health Care Management from Pokhara University, Nepal. His research for master’s thesis were on the health seeking behaviour of ethinic community (Rai community) and Tuberculosis (TB) disease management practice in Dhankuta district. Likewise, he was involved to conduct research an impact evaluation of essential drug programme in estern region of Nepal, assessment of health situation in eastern development region of Nepal, mid term evaluation of health improvement programme funded by Big Lottory Fund UK, assessing linkages between HIV service sites and TB service sites in order to access TB services for People Living with HIV Positive (PLHP) and HIV/AIDS vulnerability assessment on the returning migrant communities.

He has taken training on Curriculum Development, Basic Trianing of Trainers, Communication Skills and Training of Trainers on HeRWAI. Moreover, he has lot of experiences on training management and facilitation. He is also interested in improving his language (English) and visits to rural areas.

Biography

Cyma Ashraf has a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology and has been working in the development sector for last 5 years on the issues of child sexual abuse, domestic violence, gender and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

She has experience of working as a psychologist, trainer and master trainer on these issues. During her work she have been actively involved in the programme development, proposal writing, trainings of trainers and advocacy initiatives. In past she has carried out trainings on issues of Child Rights and Women Rights with communities, CSOs, Media and Government Officials. She has experience of working with different NGOs and National Commission on Children Welfare and Development as part of a working group on Child Sexual Abuse and Commercial Sexual Exploitation (Working Group on CSA & CSec).

Currently she is Programme manager on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights at WPF Pakistan. She has the responisibility to provide technical support to different projects in WPF. One of her projects is "Strengthening of Government" with different ministries and local governments here in Pakistan. The aim of the project is to strengthen the capacity of Ministry of Population Welfare, Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Local Government in one district on issues of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights by providing trainings to master trainers, sensitizing government officials and local communities, developing IEC and training materials as well as streamline the advocacy initiatives based on the results and outputs of the project.

Biography

Punya Bhandari is working on a Master's Degree in Demography and Population Studies. His studies included human rights, population and social justice, reproductive health issues. And he is an NGO professional working in the field of human rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV and AIDS since 5 years. In his current organization – Youth Action Nepal - he is responsible for all the Sexual and reproductive health and rights programs. He is also involved in making necessary arrangements of Human rights programs.

He is a national trainer on sexual and reproductive health and rights. In 2006, he has trained 25 young leaders during 'Youth Participation in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Training' In 2007, and a follow-up training was held to the same participants to increase their advocacy skills . Overall he has trained more than 55 young leaders of two regions of Nepal. He has been trained by Aim for Human Rights as HeRWAI trainer in May 2008 and has been actively working with HeRWAI since 2007.