Ravi Kuchimanchi and Aravinda Pillalamarri: Founders of AID

Aravinda and Ravi are AID (Asociation for India's Development) volunteers who returned to India to take up full-time grassroots development work and activism. They are involved in various efforts in Maharashtra, MP and Andhra Pradesh, and are based in Bombay and Vishakapatnam. Ravi Kuchimanchi founded AID in 1991 while working on his PhD in Physics at the University of Maryland. He initiated the weekly chapter service hours to promote volunteerism and democratic decision-making, India Beckons, AID's cultural program, and has served as the editor of Dishaa, AID's newsletter. He returned to India in January 1998. Since then he has given direction to various aspects of our work, most importantly, with the struggle in the Narmada valley, initiating local community development, visiting projects and providing in-depth reports, and ideas for alternative energy devices.

L. S. Aravinda grew up in the USA, and from an early age was very active in the social justice and environmental groups. In AID, she found a likeminded set of volunteers interested in sustainable village development. She played a key role in improving AID's publications and expanding the scope of our thinking, to include the external factors that cause poverty such as unfair global trade practices, government policies, and destructive projects and so on.
Aravinda returned to India in June 1998. She works closely with people's movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and NAPM, and is finding ways in which AID volunteers can support such movements. Aravinda and Ravi established the Eco-friendly Center and shop in Mumbai, and have started women's savings groups, childrens libraries, organic farming and other rural initiatives in villages near Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh.

I have been fortunate to meet both of them 2 times... once when I was a student at Texas A&M University and they had come to initiate a chapter there.. and another time in this small village in interior maharastra called Bhilgaon. The first visit was an eye opener for me as to the frustration I felt saying that I wanted to so much for my country.... but what can I do from so far away.... I was pulled into AID and felt that was one of the best times of my stay in the US. Sall acts of importance... did contribute to substantial efforts. The second time was a life-memorable event. I had gone as a representative of AID wherein we had financed a microhydel project to this village. Here Ravi and Arvinda too had come and I saw the commitment and love in their eyes for development... Ravi was literally helping the men move stones, rocks, mud, cement as well overlooking the entire project... Arvinda was like a rustic lady wit the kids... she reciprocated the love they professed and had such a rapport with them! Kudos to these two people who have done a great service to rural India... they are the reasons for INDIA SHINING!

Ravi Kuchimanchi ( 7 items )
Founded AID in 1991 while getting his PhD in Physics at the University of Maryland. He initiated India Beckons, AID's cultural program, and has served as the editor of Dishaa, AID's newsletter, from 1993 to the present time. He played a central role in initiating weekly meetings of AID chapters known as Community Service Hours to inspire volunteerism, create leaders and provide a participatory structure for decision-making. He returned to India in January 1998 to work full-time on involved with various aspects of AID like, most importantly, interacting with Narmada Bacho Andolan, initiating local community development efforts in villages near Rajamundri,Srikakulam, etc,.,visiting several AID Projects and providing in-depth reports and co-ordinating with AID Chapters in India.One of his innovative idea has now resulted into the development of the Pedal Power Generator, which has the potential of being used in village level as an alternative source for energy.

L S Aravinda ( 1 items )
JeevanSaathi Aravinda Pillalamarri has been working with AID since 1995 and has played a key role in expanding AID's vision and mission. One of her most important contributions has been to advocate a model of participatory development where issues of social justice are at the heart of developmental work. Thus she has been instrumental in forging AID's solidarity with grassroots people's movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan and the NAPM. Aravinda moved to India in 1998 on completing her Master's degree in South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin and has since worked full-time for AID. She also holds a Master's Degree in Library Sciences from Simmons College, Boston.
Aravinda's work in India includes· championing models of livelihood that are based on ecologically sustainable methods of production,
· building networks of fair trade within the context of marketing traditional artisanal work,
· creating learning resources that the educated and urban middle class may use to understand the perspectives and analyses voiced by the people central to the processes of social change, who are too often marginaised from prevailaing development planning owing to poverty and oppression.
· supporting cultural and political expression in local and tribal languages
She has worked with AID-India in promoting village libraries, organic farming, women's groups, and sustainable technological innovations through the AID Rural Technology Resource Center in Orissa. She is a visiting Faculty at the Jagannath Institute for Technology Management in rural Orissa.
Aravinda has written for The Hindu, Economic & Political Weekly and is working on "Signals in the Fog", a book-in-progress that reflects lessons learned during the course of her work with AID. Aravinda is married to Ravi Kuchimanchi, and they have one daughter, Khiyali.
You can find her articles at AID's publications page.

You can find more information in AID at http://sahyadri.aidindia.org/ Your support in terms of efforts, compassion and volunteership is welcome!

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