Sellapah Raveendran – Public Officer.
Sellapah is a professional in Civil Engineering. He lives in Sydney with his wife and son Kumaran who is a PWD.
Sangeeta Suresh – President
Sangeeta has a Commerce degree from Osmania University. Presently employed as an accountant with a private firm. Sangeeta is the mother of Arjun a PWD.
Charanya Manohar – Vice President
Charanya is living with her husband, daughter and son in western Sydney. Her adult son has autism and acquired brain injury.
She has a master’s degree in education and is working in NSW Department of Education in a secondary school as a teacher.
Uday Shah – Secretary
Uday is an IT professional based in Sydney. He has an MBA from University of Technology Sydney. Uday is married to Parul and is father of Sachin a PWD. His personal experiences have instilled in him a passion for Community work especially in the area of Disability.
Namita Biswal – Assistant Secretary
Driven by a powerful combination of professional expertise and personal passion, Namita is a dedicated advocate for the disability community. She brings over 15 years of experience in senior HR roles within the healthcare and social services sectors, complemented by both an MBA and an MHR Law. Namita also has significant Board experience within the NFP sector. As the mother of two boys, one of whom has a rare genetic disorder and profound intellectual disability, she is committed to fostering equality and inclusion for every individual, ensuring people of all abilities can thrive.
Jayvant Vaidya – Treasurer
Jayvant is a qualified Civil Engineer and possesses a master’s degree in civil engineering, majoring in Construction Management from University of NSW. He migrated to Australia in 1991 and has established his career working in Local Government since 1992. He is passionate about working with the community. He is married to Vaishalee and has two sons.
Shiva Iyer – Executive member
Shiva is an IT professional and is a full-time carer for his son Kaarthik. He has done postgraduation in Information Technology from University of Technology, Sydney.
Shiva is married to Charu, who is a Carnatic music teacher. He also has a daughter by name Priya who is married and lives in Austin, Texas. He is very much interested in health and healthy living
Rajni Chandran – Executive member
Rajni works full time and is Hem Sidharth’s primary carer. She has a Doctorate in Sociology from the University of Pune in India with many years of experience in community development and teaching. She is also a trained counsellor in Australia and works with Community Services. She is actively engaged in promoting networking as a means of empowering carers and persons with disability to overcome barriers to community engagement and wellbeing. Rajni is a writer in her spare time, having co-authored a book of family memoirs which has been recently published.
Caroline Romeo – Advisor
Caroline is a Statewide Home & Community Care (HACC) Project Worker whose work focuses on improving access for older people, younger people with disability and their carers to HACC services. She has a history of volunteering that includes or included the Art Gallery of NSW, local church, SEVA, one-off Sydney events like Australia Day, Sydney Harbour Bridge 75th anniversary, etc. Caroline’s connection with Samarpan is to support the group to raise awareness of disability in the South Asian community and to improve and support access for people to non-disability specific services. She can be contacted at sydromeo@tpg.com.au
Rajeev Shanker – Committee Member
Rajeev is an IT professional based in Sydney. He has a master’s degree in computer engineering from NTUU, Ukraine. Rajeev is married to Purva and is a father of two sons – Raghav, who has autism, and Pranav, who is studying Computer Engineering.
He is passionate to work with people with disability and has also completed a TAFE course in Disability.
Bramara Kumar – Committee Member
Bramara Kumar believes that people with special needs should have inclusiveness in our society. To achieve this, we should provide the right support and environment, and we all should work towards that.
Veena Sashikumar – Committee Member
Veena Sashikumar is a mother of a beautiful girl who is on the Autism Spectrum.
She is a mum, IT sales professional, speaker, community leader and passionate advocate for inclusivity and creating awareness about neurodiversity. She runs a voluntary group for South Asian mums supporting children with neurodiversity. She believes that the right supports and opportunities would empower individuals with disabilities to reach their fullest potential.
Madan Rautela – Committee Member
Madan Rautela is a practising accountant based in Bella Vista, NSW and is a father of two. His son is on the autism spectrum, nonverbal and has intellectual disability. The focus lies in improving the lives of individuals with disabilities and building a support network for their immediate family members. He aims to reduce the impact of persistent challenges, enabling individuals and their families to enjoy a more typical and fulfilling life. He is married to Bhawana and parent of PWD Hans.
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