Our Team
Trustees
Michelle Chawla
A passionate environmental activist and community worker with a background in social sciences from the College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai, Michelle is the founder and Managing Trustee of Tamarind Tree. She has spent over ten years working on environmental and developmental issues both within and outside Dahanu with organisations such as Greenpeace International, Concerned for Working Children (Karnataka), Citizens for Peace (Mumbai), Campaign Against Child Labour, Redstone Farm School (Maharashtra).
Opting out of the city of Mumbai, she moved to Sogve, a sleepy tribal village in 2002 with the motivation of learning, living with and contributing to rural society, besides farming. While Tamarind Tree emerged formally only five years later in 2007, time was spent in building trust, understanding the community, their worldview and building acceptance. She spearheads the team at the school and the oral history project and continues to work on protecting Dahanu's environment.
Kavita Anand
Kavita Anand, of the Active Learning Centre, developed a national reputation as an inspirational educational leader and thinker. For the past 9 years she has been the Executive Director of Shishuvan, a nationally acclaimed ICSE school sponsored by a Jain community in Mumbai. You could check the website www.shishuvan.com for more on this.
Coming originally from a background of psychology and behavioural science, Kavita has over the last 23 years, worked in various capacities with schools, not for profits and funding agencies in the areas of Education and the Arts. These include the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), the Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) the Aga Khan Education Services, India (AKES(I)), and the Bombay Cambridgeen Gurukul (BCG) group of schools. Her range of work includes facilitating a review of the education sector in India from Pre-Primary to University education and undertaking a quality audit of the effectiveness of a corporate NGO partnership.
Nandini Ramnath
Nandini has over 15 years of experience in journalism. She is the Film Editor of Time Out, Mumbai. She has previously worked with The Indian Express and NDTV24x7. She also writes for the Mint newspaper's weekend edition Lounge. She graduated in Psychology and Sociology from St Xavier's College.
Jaanu Raavte
A talented and brilliant tribal artist, Jaanu is recognised by the Ministry of Textiles and Handicrafts and travels the country exhibiting his work. His works have been displayed in various galleries in Mumbai. Adding a contemporary touch, Jaanu's innovation in his art reflects the dynamic and changing worldview of the Warlis.
Team
Hemant Babu
A communications and technology buff, leading Nomad India, Hemant leads and manages all of Tamarind Tree's technological work---- be it the development and use of an open source software for the school, developing an open source video platform for the Oral History Project or building this site. Tamarind Tree partners with Nomad India and gains from its technical skills and knowledge.
Nitin Mhasha
Nitin takes to technology like a duck takes to water. A hands on person, Nitin handles the camera with ease and shoots for the Oral History Project. Living at the foot of the hills, in Sogve village, Nitin is an excellent resource to locate story tellers and narrators and gets them to speak.
Vinit Waghe
An environmentalist at heart, farmer in practice and an engineer by profession, VInit dabbles in GISS, runs an organic store in Mumbai besides being the community trainer and editor for the Oral History Project.
Natasha Zarine
A student of law and a passionate environmentalist, Natasha is handling fundraising and publicity for Tamarind Tree. Thanks to her, Tamarind Tree has a small team running the Mumbai Marathon in January 2012.
Tina Surti
A graduate from Goa, Tina returned to her hometown in Dahanu to work with children. She handles the Senior KG, besides overseeing the administrative tasks of the school. Extremely loving and find of children, she manages the difficult and demanding children with calmness and ease.
Aarti Parekh
Having completed her Diploma in Education (D.Ed) from Mumbai, Aarti joined us in this academic year to teach Class 1 children. She manages an enthusiastic small class of 15 very well, though is unable to cope with the frogs, snakes and other creatures on the farm at the school.
Vanita Mhasha
Known to be strict with her 4 year olds, Vanita lives in Sogve village and completed her 12th from a local Dahanu college. She brings the oral folklore from her community and presents it to the other teachers, as we slowly groom her to become the story teller of our school.
Anusaya Junnar
Along with Sameena, Anusaya teaches the Nursery class in the school. She was the first teacher to join Tamarind Tree, when the school had only 6 children and did her Montessori course during the year.
Sameena Shaikh
Sameena along with Anusaya have the toughest job at School - they handle the naughty 3 year old Nursery children. Having completed her Montessori course, Sameena leads the Nursery and teaches and learns in four languages -- Warli, English, Gujarati and Hindi.
Anil Gorkhana
A minority in the team of women, Anil handles outdoor games and the administrative work at the school. Having completed his higher secondary education, he is working on finishing his graduation. Inclined technically, he is also part of the Oral History Project.
Rajesh Doshi
Kiran Mahyavanshi