Yagna Parmar

Passionate about girls & rights and gender equity, Yagna has grown with Vacha in the last 15 years. As the Project Director, she is responsible for project management, strategic planning and implementation, donor management and resource mobilisation. She contributes extensively to the girls’ empowerment project, and gender and health education training of adolescents and represents Vacha at various forums.

A sports enthusiast, she doesn’t need a second call to join kids in a game of cricket. A topper in her Master’s degree in Social Work at SNDT Women’s University, she completed two postgraduate diplomas – in career counselling from Xavier’s Institute of Counselling Psychology and in Development Studies from Azim Premji University.

Nischint Hora

Her sense of humour and laughter are her trademarks. A student of literature, media and women’s studies, she has worked in the programming division of Doordarshan. Nischint has been with Vacha for nearly 27 years. She has extensively contributed to gender training programmes.

She has been involved in documenting the lives of girls and has also co- directed a documentary film on women in the Indian freedom movement. She has co-edited a book “Experiencing Girlhood: Stories from Bastis in Mumbai”. As Honorary Co-Project Director, Nischint provides creative inputs to Vacha’s projects.

Steffi Fernando

Always smiling and enthusiastic about taking on new challenges and responsibilities, Steffi comes with nearly a decade of experience in handling diverse portfolios like programme ideation, implementation, creating detailed monitoring and evaluation indicators, managing grant portfolios, reporting and documentation. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from Nirmala Niketan and a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Media with a specialisation in Advertising from S.I.E.S College.

Additionally, she has a Diploma in Personal Counselling and has completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Development Leadership from Azim Premji University. As the Assistant Project Director, Steffi shares the responsibility for ideation, guidance and execution of all programme activities at Vacha.

Darshana Shah

Darshana is the Head of Finance and Administration at Vacha. She is responsible for accounting and finance and regularly updates the Board of Trustees and Funders on such matters. She has three decades of experience in accounting and administration.

Closely following every change or amendment to the tax laws and accounting systems, Darshana is a merit holder in commerce and a law graduate from the Government Law College, Mumbai. When she is not looking at numbers and laws, she immerses herself in the world of music and fiction.

Dineshwari Thonse

Soft-spoken but firm, Dineshwari is the Co-Founder and Managing Trustee at Vacha. She is also the Chairperson of the Resource Centre for Women and Girls. She ensures Vacha’s adherence to good governance, leads the way for strategic thinking, strengthens management systems and safeguards the sustainability of the organisation.

With roots firmly set in the women’s movement of Mumbai, Dineshwari holds a Post Graduate degree in Economics and an M. Phil in English Literature from SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. She is a retired lecturer from Smt. Mittal College of Commerce and a former Trustee at TOUCH – Turning Opportunities for Upliftment and Child Help.

Meenal Patel

An acclaimed theatre actor, she has acted in mainstream and experimental plays in several languages including Gujarati, Hindi, English and Marathi over the last 50 years. Meenal has used theatre to express ideas on the women's movement and also penned songs on women’s empowerment. She has been on the advisory panel of the Film Certification Board. She received an acting award for her role of Kasturba in the play `Gandhi Viruddh Gandhi’.

As Co-founder and Trustee at Vacha, Meenal has contributed extensively to bring out the first-ever album on the girlhood of intersectional and deprived girls.

Sonal Shukla

Wikipedia

On September 9, 2021 Founder Trustee Ms. Sonal Shukla breathed her last. She left behind a formidable legacy of activism for Gender Justice. Until her very end, she motivated and inspired women from all walks of life to stand up for their rights and support one another in their quest for a more equitable society.

She was actively involved with Indian Women’s Movement from its inception and wrote extensively on women's issues in Gujarati newspapers for over four decades. She was also on the editorial boards of the interdisciplinary journal published at Montreal , "Girlhood Studies", and of the quarterly, "Quest in Education", published by Indian Council of Basic Education, Mumbai. She was a recipient of the various awards for her work on women's issues over the years. In 2021, Sonal Shukla was recognised as a Feminist Icon in India by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, for their Gender Justice hub in Asia and has also received the Mahatma award initiated by the Aditya Birla Group for her work in Gender Equality.

Sonalben, as she was known, was synonymous with Vacha. She used different creative mediums such as poems, songs and storytelling to impart complicated messages on Gender issues. She constantly encouraged girls and women to read, absorb and discuss issues that hindered a just and violent free society. Apart from emphasising the need for solidarity among women centric organisations and individual activists, Sonalben focussed her attention on adolescent girls who she believed needed to play an important role in ushering in the change in our society.

In 1987 Sonalben, Dineshwari Thonse, Nina Haeems and Meenal Patel started Vacha as an experiment that combines non formal education with participatory action and research to initiate social change. It was later registered as a Trust in the year 1990.

Under Sonalben’s visionary leadership, VACHA channelised collective energies in empowering economically disadvantaged adolescent girls in Mumbai and Thane districts through education, skill training and exposure programmes along with a focus on livelihood issues.

VACHA’s programmes dwelled on empowerment, self-care, recreation while stressing on the importance of education among girls. She personally counselled and encouraged women survivors of violence, girls facing constraints and housewives facing restrictions, to set high goals for themselves and achieve the goals with support from other women. Sonalben will be dearly missed by everyone of us. The Board of Trustees are grateful for her guidance and leadership over the years and vow to continue to work towards a world without exploitation, oppression, discrimination and violence against women or any other section of society.

Dr. Vibhuti Patel

Always encouraging and supporting youth to aspire to achieve greater heights, Vibhuti is a stalwart in the feminist movement in India. She is a PhD in Economics from the University of Mumbai and is a retired Professor and Head of the Post Graduate Department of Economics, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. She is also a retired Professor and Chairperson of the Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, School of Development Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

As an Expert Committee member of the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls in the United Nations Human Rights Council, she contributed to the Report on Women's Human Rights in Changing World of Work, 2020. She is a recipient of many awards and recognitions for her work in various disciplines. As Trustee, Vibhuti contributes to building Vacha’s visibility, strategic thinking and networking.

Dr. Veena Devasthali

A silent worker with a warm heart, Veena is a retired Professor and Head of the Department of Economics, SNDT Women’s University in Mumbai. With a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, her areas of core competency are Macro Economics, Development Economics, Indian Economy, Industrial Economics and Labour Economics.

She has been on various important committees for academic development and management. She has been associated with the Women’s Movement in Mumbai. As Trustee – Treasurer at Vacha, she provides her expertise in research and documentation.

Avidha Golwalkar

With a penchant for star gazing, she uses every opportunity to travel and experience nature in its full beauty. Avidha comes with over two decades of experience in the development sector and is an alumnus of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. She holds postgraduate degrees in Gender, Social Work and Human Rights, is a certified practitioner of Corporate Social Responsibility from HCL Foundation Academy and a certified Happiness Coach and Trainer from the Berkeley Institute of Wellbeing, California.

As Associate Project Director at Vacha, she is responsible for fundraising, grant management, and collaboration with other NGOs. She is also responsible for Vacha’s social media presence. Her skills lie in expressive art therapy, encouraging and guiding adolescents on a self-exploratory process for stress management.

Jaya Nair

A trained counsellor from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Jaya has extensively worked on HIV and TB programmes with government agencies and NGOs. She received the Youth Ambassador Award for her work in HIV and TB in 2007 under the Commonwealth youth ambassador Programme. She has previously handled Corporate Social Responsibility and industrial safety of workers in steel plants. Gardening and cooking have always been her ways to unwind.

As Vacha’s District Coordinator-Thane, she oversees the operation of resource centres for intersectional and disadvantaged youth in bastis in Thane district. She also contributes to designing programmes for team capacity building, youth engagement on social issues and also networks with external stakeholders.

Sharanya Mitra

She hopes that one day she will captivate audiences as a singer. Sharanya moved to Mumbai from Kolkata after graduating with a first class in her BA (Hons) in Sociology from Xavier’s College, Kolkata. She completed her Master’s in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai also with a first class.

As Monitoring and Evaluation In-Charge, at Vacha, Sharanya manages the monitoring and evaluation system, documentation and coordination of various events.

Sheetal Khanvilkar

Sheetal holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and also a Post Graduate Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling from Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai. She comes with over a decade of experience in working with children of construction workers, children who attend night school and sexually abused children.

As the District Coordinator – Mumbai, Sheetal manages the coordination of the Vacha resource centres in the Mumbai district and also handles issues of sexual abuse among adolescents.