About Sahaya International

What is Sahaya International?

Sahaya International, Inc. is a non-profit organization, based in Davis, California. Sahaya International consists of a diverse network of friends, who are committed to make a difference towards improving the quality of life in developing countries. Through our volunteer efforts, we provide much needed assistance to social development projects in developing countries. Our organization is quite young. In June 1999, we obtained official approval by the California Secretary of State, and we acquired state tax exemption status by the California Franchise Tax Board. In November 1999, we obtained federal approval and official 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Since then we have been growing rapidly and our network of volunteers, supporters and well-wishers currently reaches in the thousands.

Since 2008, there is also a Sahaya International student organization at the University of California, Davis.

Please note that Sahaya International is 100% run by volunteers. Not a single penny is spent on salaries! We want to make sure that the maximum amount of your donation can go overseas to directly help the people who are in need.

Officers:

President: Dr. Ramin Yazdani (Ph.D.)

I was inspired to become involved with Sahaya International after visiting various cities in India and seeing the poverty level in 2002. I decided to do something to help the poor and help reduce global warming impacts of this highly populated country. My profession as a environmental engineer was put to good use when I joined Sahaya International after reading an article in the local paper about this organization and all of the great work that they do and what a big impact it is making in people’s life. My 2009 and 2010 trips to India were great since I got to see all of these great programs that READ and Sahya International are performing with great results. I also got to visit my sponsored children in India. I am grateful to be part of this organization and be able to give back to our global family & community.

Secretary/Treasururer: Dr. Koen Van Rompay

I was born and raised in Belgium. My passion for animals led me to become a veterinary doctor at the University of Ghent (Belgium). Thanks to a fellowship from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF), I came to the University of California, Davis (UCD), where I have been doing HIV/AIDS research. I am currently Full Research Professor at UCD. In 1997, I became involved in India, which led to the start of Sahaya International, as described elsewhere (click here). I spend most of his free time on the daily management of Sahaya International. I enjoy making a difference and meeting many inspirational people along the way. I started writing a book about my journey (click here).

Koen has received several awards, including the 2006 Alumnus of the Year Award by the University of Antwerp, the International Peace-Maker Award (Teach Peace Foundation), the 2010 Excellence in Research Award (Academic Federation, University of California), the 2010 Community Service Award (University of California, Davis).

Directors:

Dr. Adele Moussas, M.D.
I was first drawn to Sahaya by the beautiful hand embroidered cards. Learning about the women who make them, I became curious about the other programs sponsored by Sahaya and READ. What made me decide to join Sahaya and eventually become a Board member was the direct connection, the direct help I could be to these people on the other side of the globe. Wanting to connect even more with them spurred me to go to India to visit the people benefiting from our sponsorship and see the programs in action. The villagers won my heart as can only happen when interacting one on one. I am grateful for my training as a Family Practice physician because this knowledge helped me participate in presenting HIV/AIDS awareness information, which is desperately needed in these villages. If you feel any stirrings of desire to help others, I encourage you to honor that desire and join us or do work for the good of others in your local community.

Elisabeth Sherwin
I worked for many years as a reporter for The Davis Enterprise (California), and I am now executive director at International House Davis. I am a member of the Uman (Ukraine)-Davis Sister City Project. I has traveled widely throughout Europe and have visited China and several Eastern European countries.
I have traveled twice to India to spend time at Sahaya's sister organization READ. You can read some of my articles here. Through Sahaya's sponsorship program, I am also the proud mother of Vignesh, an orphan who is a very bright student and hopes to become a medical doctor.

Karl Krupp
is at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he works as a Program Manager in Global Health Outreach to developing countries. In the last five years he helped co-founded Public Health Research Institute in Mysore, India, with Dr. Purnima Madhivanan and continues to volunteer in grant writing and management. He has a Masters in Public Health from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and interests that extend to utilizing microeconomic self-help groups to promote women’s health, HIV prevention, and treatment of neglected tropical diseases.

Mary Philip
worked for many years as a social workers in Mumbai, India. Upon moving to the USA, she worked for the California Department of Public Health and recently retired. She is involved with many charities, and is also vice-president of International House Davis.

Rino Dizon, D. O., Family Physician

As an undergraduate at UC Davis, I worked in the virology and immunology lab, where I met Dr. Van Rompay. His passion for philanthropy inspired me to help in making a direct impact to those affected by the AIDS epidemic. Sahaya is the true embodiment of compassion.
Since 2001, I've had the pleasure serving as board member and I continue to learn new ways of improving our humanitarian missions. Sahaya has helped me realize the true meaning of hope and with that, make a difference to those in need.

Joe Becker, M.D.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Joe attended UC Davis for his undergraduate studies in Spanish Literature and Biochemistry. Subsequent to graduation in 1998 Joe attended the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine where he graduated in 2003. While in medical school Joe moved abroad to Cameroon for a year and a half working in public health and HIV biodiversity. After completing an internship in Aerospace Medicine at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/University of Texas Joe worked as a Public Health and Laboratory officer for the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Multi-Country AIDS Program in Kigali, Rwanda. Upon return Joe attended the Yale University School of Medicine residency in Emergency Medicine where he graduated in 2009. Joe then went on to complete fellowship training in Global Health and International Emergency Medicine at Stanford University, where he continues currently as faculty.

Paul Adamson
is currently a medical student at UC San Francisco. He received his MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health in May 2009. Paul spent the summers of 2008 and 2010 in Mysore, India coordinating several projects run by the Public Health Research Institute and the Prerana Women's Health Initiative. His interests are in improving maternal and child health in underserved communities of India

Lonna Hampton

Patrick De Grande and Hilde De Cock
have been closely involved with Sahaya International from the very beginning. Hilde is a Veterinary Pathologist, while Patrick is a construction engineer. They currently reside in Belgium.

Paulina Zielinska ( D.V.M., M.P.V.M., M.P.H.) is a veterinarian from Poland who moved to Davis, California to pursue a master's degree in the Preventive Veterinary Medicine and to increase her knowledge of public health issues. She started working on HIV/AIDS prevention and through this work met Koen Van Rompay from Sahaya. Paulina went to India for 3 months in the fall of 2009 to work on a HIV- related project. During her time in India, she was able to visit programs at READ and witness the immense impact that Sahaya made on those programs. Recently she obtained a M.P.H. in Global Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and is planning to make a contribution to improvement of health situation in India and other developing countries.

Cincin Young, Ph.D., founded the Mosquito-Dengue Fighters Association (MDFA; http://mdfa.shutterfly.com/) in the Philippines in July 2010. The MDFA mission is dengue prevention through mosquito control. Cincin was the administrative officer of the UC Davis Pulsed Flow Program (http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/PulsedFlow/) and the Instream Flow Assessment Program (http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Instream/). Both programs dealt with the effects of hydropower facilities on the aquatic species and habitats in California rivers and streams. Cincin recently retired from the University of California in Davis to devote more time to the MDFA. She has been involved with fund raising for Sahaya International since 2005 and has also been involved in many fund raising events for other organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Farm to School, and International House.

Chung Truong (left on picture)
I graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2001 with a degree of biological sciences and also graduated from the University of the Pacific in 2006 with a degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. Throughout these years, I have seen the tremendous development of Sahaya International. I have become very inspired by the many lives that Sahaya has helped. I am very grateful to be apart of such a great humanitarian effort.

Andy Lauer
is a well-known actor, movie director, and President/Founder of Reelaid.
Best known to America for his role of "Charlie" (for which he was Emmy-nominated) on the hit NBC comedy series Caroline in the City, Andy. Lauer has co-starred on the big screen in Gunshy (Liam Neeson and Sandra Bullock), Screamers (Peter Weller), and Never On Tuesday (Peter Berg), For the Boys (Bette Midler) and Oliver Stone's The Doors (Val Kilmer) and Born on the Fourth of July (Tom Cruise). He has directed a number of short films and documentaries (click here for a more detailed list). In December 2010, Andy spent 2 weeks in India to make a promo-video about Sahaya's work with the NGO READ. This video is currently in production (click here for more details).

In addition, we have several key volunteers who are in charge of specific Sahaya programs:

Dr. Purnima Madhivanan, M.P.H., is a physician by training from India who received her degree in Epidemiology from UC Berkeley in 2003. She was a Fogarty fellow at Brown University studying HIV epidemiology in women. As a Fogarty scholar, she obtained a PhD in Epidemiology at the Berkeley School of Public Health. Prior to that she managed a clinic for HIV infected women and children at YRG CARE, Chennai, India. She serves as a consultant with many community based organizations and is fluent in English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil.

Kate and Venyei Angshing are in charge of fundraising for and managing the Lamling Vista Elementary School in Vennyei’s village in rural Nagaland, India. Kate graduated from UC Davis in 2006 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. She met her husband on a medical mission trip to India in 2005 and has returned to India several times since then. Venyei completed both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Theology in India, graduating in 2008 from Gospel for Asia Biblical Seminary. He is now pursuing his Doctor of Ministry degree through Bakke Graduate University with a focus on transformational leadership and practical theology. Venyei and Kate are both passionate about youth empowerment, social justice, and public health