Ekta Community Projects

Ekta Community Projects is run by a small, but highly dedicated group of people spread between India, the US and the UK and supported by a fantastic team of volunteers. The experience, enthusiasm and expertise of every member of the organisation has been critical in getting as far as we have come.

Ekta India

Kavita Shivekar
Site manager for education, Pune

Kavita has been with Ekta since its very inception (in fact, the organisation's name was her idea). At 21, with a Bachelor's degree, Teacher Training Certificate and several years of experience already under her belt, she's an incredibly early starter! She began her studies as a Commerce student, before getting a job with another NGO in the city and discovering that her real passion was teaching children. For Ekta, Kavita manages everything to do with education at the project site. This typically involves spending many hours with the communities teaching, answering questions, and coordinating activities as well as supervising the work of our teacher volunteers and the community members who have themselves taken on teaching duties. A well-loved figure in the communities, Kavita is typically surrounded by a gaggle of children clamouring for her attention.

Trushna Kamble
Site manager for community programs, Pune

Trushna also joined Ekta at the very beginning and has been involved in every step of brainstorming, planning, and executing the organisation's mission since. She holds a BA, an MSw and an MA in NGO Administration and has been the brains behind some of Ekta's new ideas, as well as an important strength in times of difficulty. Trushna manages Ekta's 'community programs', a broad category that includes microfinance self-help groups, lectures on health and sanitation, the registration of community members for birth certificates and ration cards, adult literacy and numeracy classes, and a myriad of other activities. In the community, she is the ultimate authority on everything to do with tackling government bureaucracy and is an expert at drafting in specialist organisations and institutions to assist Ekta's work as the need arises. She can usually be found sitting in someone's house, in the middle of a circle, listening patiently before dispensing her valuable advice.

Ekta USA

Daniel Littlejohn-Carrillo
President and CEO
dlittlejohn[at]ektaprojects dot org

Daniel first moved to Pune in 2001 at the age of 17 to complete his secondary schooling. Years later, after the laborious process of getting a BA in Social Studies at Harvard Univeristy in the United States, he fled back to Pune and began to work with urban slum communities there, deciding eventually to open Ekta Community Projects with Patrick in June 2009. Though on staff in the United States, Daniel currently lives in Pune supporting work on the ground there.

Patrick Mayne
Secretary and COO
pmayne[at]ektaprojects dot org

After getting a degree in Music at Emory University in the United States and spending a year studying public health on a fellowship at St Andrew's in Scotland, Patrick decided to go somewhere a little warmer and get his hands dirty in Pune. He spent two years working in the city before opening Ekta Community Projects with Daniel and recently moved to Delhi from where he provides support and guidance to the team in Pune and the rest of the team in the United States.

Johann Dong
Treasurer and CFO
jdong[at]ektaprojects dot org

Johann lives and works in New York and joined Daniel and Patrick to found the organisation in the United States as an act of faith. With great patience and diplomacy, he has been a pillar of support in providing structure and order to Daniel and Patrick's confusion of ideas, plans and projects. With a Harvard University degree in Economics and a background in management consulting, he keeps the organisation firmly anchored to reality in administering its finances, registrations and legal obligations in the United States.

	Daniel Littlejohn-Carrillo President and CEO dlittlejohn[at]ektaprojects dot org Daniel first moved to Pune in 2001 at the age of 17 to complete his secondary schooling. Years later, after the laborious process of getting a BA in Social Studies at Harvard Univeristy in the United States, he fled back to Pune and began to work with urban slum communities there, deciding eventually to open Ekta Community Projects with Patrick in June 2009. Though on staff in the United States, Daniel currently lives in Pune supporting work on the ground there.
	Patrick Mayne Secretary and COO pmayne[at]ektaprojects dot org After getting a degree in Music at Emory University in the United States and spending a year studying public health on a fellowship at St Andrew's in Scotland, Patrick decided to go somewhere a little warmer and get his hands dirty in Pune. He spent two years working in the city before opening Ekta Community Projects with Daniel and recently moved to Delhi from where he provides support and guidance to the team in Pune and the rest of the team in the United States.
	Johann Dong Treasurer and CFO jdong[at]ektaprojects dot org Johann lives and works in New York and joined Daniel and Patrick to found the organisation in the United States as an act of faith. With great patience and diplomacy, he has been a pillar of support in providing structure and order to Daniel and Patrick's confusion of ideas, plans and projects. With a Harvard University degree in Economics and a background in management consulting, he keeps the organisation firmly anchored to reality in administering its finances, registrations and legal obligations in the United States.