Our management team is composed of VOC Board and Executive team. The VOC Board’s primary function is to define and oversee the policies, to make certain that they are consistent with our objectives and philosophy. The Executive team, which also includes the VOC Board members is the operational management team for the Projects. The team consists of Project Coordinator that functions at the VOC corporate level, and Project Director, that functions in the “field” at the Project.
Our Board
Kirit Dave, Chairman
Kirit Dave’ has over 30 years of experience in initiating, organizing, developing and implementing self reliance of the community service projects. Besides USA, he has also worked in various countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, and Burkina Faso), South America (Brazil, Venezuela), Germany, Asia (Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, and Bangladesh), Jamaica, Mexico and Guatemala. He served as the DAT team member with American Red Cross in Palo Alto for 6 years, and participated in many disaster relief activities to assist victims. In SF Bay area, he initiated a preschool in Palo Alto, operated food distribution for homeless people for 7 years in San Jose. He conducted various fund raiser events for global and local natural disasters. His work in Ethiopia to organize feeding thousands of people on the verge of starvation received major media coverage and praises from the community.
His recent projects include opening of a free medical clinic in Gujarat India, (2003), building of a Tsunami relief Memorial, a community center in Tamil Nadu, India (2005), organizing a major fund raiser at Washington University (2005), a preschool in Petropolis, Brazil (2002), and initiation of a trade school offering English and Computer education, also in Brazil (2009).
He has taught meditation, Eastern Philosophy and music for over 20 years. He also mentors aspiring philanthropists on how to organize community service projects. He provides individual spiritual guidance, as well as regular classes on how to develop and manage lifelong spiritual pursuits. He has offered his community services free of charge for 30 years to all people.
Professionally, Kirit is a computer hardware and software designer and a real estate investor. He has worked for many major Silicon Valley companies like AMD and Fujitsu for over 30 years.
Saril Valiyaparambil, President
Saril holds BS in Electrical Engineering and has many original product designs to his credit. He currently works as Senior Design Engineer at Synopsys, Inc., a leading hi-tech company in Silicon Valley. He has worked for other hi-tech companies like ST Microelectronics and Virage Logic Corporation in the past.
Saril managed Public Relation work for a branch of the major disaster relief organization, AMURT. Besides managing funds and accounts, he directed vital communication efforts during disaster relief operation, between relief teams and public / donors. He also coordinated joint efforts with other charitable organizations and thereby conducted efficient disaster relief support. He also provides technological support to the work by doing web design and email campaigns for the fund raisers. He has also supervised execution of the overall project and implemented major fund raisers for earthquakes in South America, in Gujarat, India, in Haiti, hurricanes in SE India, and floods in Central America.
Besides fund raisers and program co-ordination, Saril also initiated the opening of a pre-school in Kerala, India in 2006. The school has received much appreciation and support from local community and has expanded into a primary school serving over 150 children.
Saril is also a teacher of yoga and meditation and has taught over 300 students free of charge. He believes that meditation has nurtured his inner compassion and inspired a desire to serve others.
Mele Fernandez, Secretary
Mele Fernandez and has been involved in organizing and implementing community service projects for over 25 years in Brazil, South America and in Hawaii, USA. In 1990 she moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a period of about 10 years and became actively involved with promoting community wellness through yoga lifestyle. As current President of a non-profit, social service organization in Petropolis, Brazil called, “Centro de Yoga de Petropolis,” she continues to implement community activities. Programs include meditation and yoga workshops, food collection and distribution programs for indigent families (1990), a preschool / nutrition assistance program for children of financially disadvantaged families (2002) and an English language and computer training school for under-privileged youth (2009). She currently dedicates one month every year to on-location supervision of Voice of a Child (VOC) sponsored projects in Brazil, and to strengthen VOC network contacts in the community.
In Hawaii, USA, efforts include promoting sustainable and vegetarian food service options at the University of Hawai’i (UH) as the co-chair of the UH Campus Food Alliance (2010), and educating various community organizations on current nutrition research in disease prevention (2015). Mele has also conducted several fund raising campaigns for VOC to assist the victims of natural disasters including those affected by the Haiti earthquake (2010), Brazil flood (2011) and Nepal earthquake (2015).
Mele Fernandez is a Registered Dietitian with a Masters in Nutrition Sciences. She has focused her research on plant-based nutrition and is currently a dietitian for Adventist Health – Castle in Kailua, Hawaii.
Shubhada Pugaonkar, Board Member
Shubhada holds M.S. in Computer Engineering and works as Software Architect in Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, Oregon.
Shubhada has been involved with community service activities since early 2000. She acted as the director of internal communication for a major fund raiser event during Asian Tsunami disaster.
Shubhada also studied paralegal courses to enable her to conduct non-profit corporation activities. She has been practicing Yoga and Meditation since she was a child and now teaches Yoga classes for beginners.
Besides fund raising for the Asian Tsunami, her recent project includes planning support for the children’s school for the indigent population in Kerala, India. All her community service activities have been free of charge.
Lina Wang, Board Member
Lina Wang is an accountant specializing in Audits. She holds B.A. in Business English (China) and M.S. in Accountancy from San Jose State University. She currently works as an Accountant at NanoSolar, Inc. and has worked in the past for KPMG, a leading Accounting and Audit firm.
Lina also has substantial experience in managing a career development and planning company. She organized and hosted major international corporate conferences. Her clients included Yahoo, SAP, Nokia and other Chinese firms.
She has studied Counseling Psychology. Her recent work includes providing emotional assistance and guidance to young high school students in troubled situations such as pregnancies, academic difficulties and family frictions.
She also acts as a Director on the Board of other 501(c)(3) organizations.
She teaches Yoga and Tai Chi.
