History
In 1998, two UNC Chapel Hill medical students began exploring the impact of domestic violence on the lives of South Asians in North Carolina, in the hopes of increasing awareness among domestic violence service providers and members of the South Asian community.
Along with other women in the Triangle area who had expertise working with the South Asian community, they founded KIRAN as a domestic violence prevention and crisis service organization to assist South Asian victims of domestic violence.
In 2004, the organization had trouble getting funding to keep the organization going, so KIRAN was no longer able to provide services to the South Asian community.
However, in 2008, some of the original KIRAN organizers worked with other members of the South Asian community and obtained a grant from the North Carolina Governor's Crime Commission to rekindle KIRAN. KIRAN has been successful in helping South Asian women and men in North Carolina since then, and is continuing to grow.
Board of Directors
Amy Weil
Amy Weil is a general internal medicine physician and Medical Co-Director of UNC's Beacon Child and Family Program, which provides services for those suffering from Child Abuse, Domestic Violence,
Elder Abuse and Sexual Assault. She is deeply committed to working on the problem of violence (especially among people originating from South Asia), having been certified as a Rape Crisis Counselor over 20 years ago and having family ties to Sri Lanka for nearly as long.
Kailas Thakker
Kailas Thakker has served for the past 13 years as the President of Analytical Solutions Inc. (ASI), a contract services organization, which she founded in 1994. Under her direction, ASI offers CMC
related services with emphasis on dissolution and drug release testing. Prior to that, Kailas served as the associate Director of analytical chemistry at Sphinx Pharmaceuticals. Kailas worked at U.S. Pharmacopiea for 12 years in the Drug Research and Testing Laboratory where she was involved in many monograph revision of dissolution methods. Kailas received her Ph.D. degree from University of Kansas and M.S. from Columbia University.
Rajeev Colaco
Rajeev is a doctoral candidate in Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has a medical background and his research focuses on the links between HIV risk behaviors, domestic violence and gender equality in India.
Ritu Kaur
Ritu initiated the process for writing a grant and got KIRAN its first grant from GCC to hire staff. Ritu has a Masters in Social Work from India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Development Policy from
Belgium. She is the Associate Director of Community Relations at Interact, a domestic violence and sexual assault agency serving Wake County. Ritu is also the Project Director of the Immigrant Seeking
Safety Project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in which KIRAN is also a collaborator along with four other agencies.
Shahnaz Khan
Shahnaz Khan has a Master of Public Health degree from the University of NC at Chapel Hill, with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health. Her master’s thesis focused on the healthcare response to
domestic violence. She has extensive experience working with domestic violence and rape survivors, including work with the Rape Crisis Center of Chapel Hill, NC and Family and Children’s Services in
Greensboro, NC. Ms. Khan is Senior Director of Regulatory and Health Outcomes Strategy at RTI Health Solution.
Vandana Shah
Vandana Shah is the Co- founder of Kiran. She is currently the Director for South-East Asia for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and heads up their policy change efforts in India, Indonesia and Bangladesh. She was formerly the Executive Director of the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund (HWTF). Vandana has law degrees from Duke University and Calcutta University, India and is entered into practice in North Carolina and India. She has a passion for working on women's rights as well as issues related to the right to life and health.
Staff Rovina Nimbalkar (Program Director) :
Rovina Nimbalkar is from Mumbai, India where she received her Bachelors and Masters of Arts in Psychology. She also has her Masters degree in Social Work from North Carolina State Univeristy. Rovina has worked with several nonprofit organizations in India as well as the US. She has a passion for working for women’s rights and improving the quality of life of women in the South Asian community. She joined the Kiran team in August 2008 and is very excited to experience both the micro and macro world of social work.
Avani Parekh Bhatt (Co-Director) :
Avani is a longtime resident of North Carolina, and a graduate of George Washington Univerisity. She has worked for several international and non-profit organizations, including the World Bank, and most recently worked in India for two years on an initiave to link diaspora Indians with progessive and interesting social entrepreneurs in India. She has a passion for the social sector working with a holistic approach on issues that face society.
Priya (Client Services Coordinator) :
Priya is originally from Chennai (formerly Madras), India. She received her Bachelor's from North Carolina State University in International Studies, with a focus on South Asia & Middle East. She has always had a passion for the South Asian region, especially issues relating to women's rights. She started as an intern with Kiran, and joined as full-time staff in 2011, and is thoroughly enjoying being a part of the Kiran team.
Who we serve
KIRAN serves people whose origin or background is from the following countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Though there are differences in language, customs, and
religions across these countries, these regions share many basic cultural and historical similarities.
