Meet Our Staff

Sukhada Khisti is having over 25+ years of experience in social development sector,  complete project life cycle including need assessment, funding proposal writing, budgeting, project auditing and monitoring of projects, Management Systems, etc. She is an inspirational leader who has a track record of achieving goals, projects and profitability objectives through a respectful, forward thinking and motivational style. She is a highly qualified candidate who has industry-related experience in handling multifaceted projects like, Sponsorship Program, Reproductive Care Health Project, Foster Care Project, Higher Education Project, Foreign student internship program, Family Guidance Centre, Women empowerment program and so on.

She has a history of promoting best practices and performance standards like synchronized and functioned with more than 15 NGO partners across Pune and Chennai, contributing at Global Level in employee volunteering, handling budgeting processes, work flow execution, auditing, and monitoring & evaluation, organized Volunteering Engagement Program and managed Philanthropic Grant Projects, CSR projects  and Work Force Development Projects

Coming from Mental Health background, Shilpa has been volunteering for Connecting NGO’s Suicide Survivor Support Prgogram and Awareness Program since 2020. Connecting NGO’s Volunteer Training, peer support and the Mentor’s-Trainer’s constant handholding brought her closer to her own emotions and introduced her to power of active listening. If a person in distress is hesitant to reach out, the Outreach Program aims at letting the person in distress know that they are not alone. Fully aligned with the organization’s principles, Shilpa believes in the importance of reaching out as well, hence is pro-actively involved in the Outreach Program of Connecting NGO.

Being a volunteer in SSP and also on the helpline Prajakta has had the chance to experience the transformational effects of holding a Non-Judgmental, Non-Advisory, Unconditional listening space to the survivors of Suicide and those in distress. It has been an overwhelming experience and has helped her to explore herself in the same light. Prajakta understands that listening is not just transformative for the one listened to but rather more so for the listener himself. This process she was most, fortunately, able to nurture with the help of fellow volunteers and mentors. Taking this journey ahead she looks forward to once again being a part of the team in my new role as a coordinator and doing my bit into making the whole process beautiful for us all.

Chetan Kawale has been an active Volunteer at Connecting NGO since December 2017 and has volunteered in various capacities for Distress Helpline Program (DHP), Suicide Survivors Support Program (SSP) and also for the Peer Educator Program (PEP). And since June 2022 Chetan has been working as the Awareness Coordinator. He has now moved to a new role of Recruitment and Training in-Charge which involves recruitment of new volunteers for all Connecting programs and organizing trainings, workshops, refreshers etc. for our existing volunteers.