Suresh M has over 32 years of experience at various management levels,and has worked extensively as a freelance Development Consultant. His skills include programme management (including planning, resource mobilization, monitoring and evaluation, mentoring and capacity building of the team), documentation, advocacy, application of participatory rural appraisal techniques and participatory techniques, and strengthening of communities. He has provided consultancy services to NGOs and government organizations for the development of IEC materials on HIV/AIDS , on training, evaluation, translations, transcription, proposal writing, documentation, as well as organizational development.
He has held senior management positions in organizations including Karnataka State Women Development Corporation (KSWDC), working on devadasi rehabilitation and women empowerment, and Sisters for Change (SFC) – London. He has worked with KHPT from 2007-2015 and from 2018 onwards. He is presently with Grama Arogya as Zonal Lead for the Kalyana Karnataka Division.
Sunitha holds 22 years of experience working at the intersection of psychosocial and Gender in public health. Her expertise extends to programme management and implementation, supportive supervision, mentoring, capacity building, and counselling interventions with a gender lens. She has worked in projects supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Trust Fund, USAID, World Bank, and UNFPA. Her work has been in the areas of HIV prevention and care and support for infected and affected in high-risk populations, including female sex workers, sexual minorities, and persons with Tuberculosis (DR and DS TB). She has also worked on the prevention of violence against women in sex work, prevention of intimate partner violence, ensuring the well-being of adolescent children, and on a nutrition pilot project in the most backward blocks of Karnataka.
She has also provided technical support on HIV preventive and care and support counseling to high-level personnel from Sri Lanka’s HIV prevention program and to Sri Lanka’s queer community.
In her personal capacity, she counsels women, men and their families, and supports people in need of counselling.
She has received the “International Women’s Day Award 2019” from Garden City University, Bengaluru, and awarded the Rex Karamveer Global Fellow 2019 and the Karamveer Chakra Award 2019 instituted by #iCONGO in partnership with the United Nations.
She has received her Master’s in Sociology from Karnataka University, a Diploma in Counselling, and is a certified, Queer Affirmative Counselling Practitioner (QACP).