e-mail : secretary@wellbeingsrilanka.com
Trustees
Well-Being (Sri Lanka)
The trustees have a range of skills and experience including running businesses and charities, medicine and engineering. Trustees oversee the quality of construction and the financial probity of the organisation. Trustees are involved with site visits to both select beneficiaries but also to check the quality of construction and the impact of the well on the lives its beneficiaries - the families in the Wanni.
Bala Gnanapragasam
Bala Gnanapragasam believes strongly in the mission and social justice. Born in Sri Lanka, he came to the UK in 1965.
Bala has around 35 years' professional experience in the telecommunications sector, much of this at international executive level, at British Telecom, ECI Telecom, CTell Inc. and Interoute Telecommunications Ltd
He serves on the board of Christian Aid and MHA (formerly known as Methodist Homes for the Aged). Bala is the Chairman of Change Alliance a wholly owned subsidiary of Christian Aid in India. He is a trustee of the London HIV Chaplaincy. He has served as an elected councillor for the London Borough of Lewisham. He has also served as the Chair of University Hospital Lewisham for 8 years.
He was the first Synod Secretary for the London District of the British Methodist Church and is the Vice President of the Methodist conference for 2018/19.
Raj Gnanapragasam
Originally from Sri Lanka Raj came to the UK in the late sixties to pursue his education. His initial degree in Psychology led to a career in clinical Psychology. An MSc in Business Management supported his career development in Human Resource Management within the business world. This culminated in Raj working for the largest food service organisation in the world, the FTSE 100 listed Compass Group plc with board positions in the UK, Canada and the USA. He was also an executive board member for the London Millennium dome and was seconded to head Human Resources for the 2003 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
His passion and determination to make a difference in people’s lives started when he joined the charity Samaritan’s Feet 13 years ago where he served as a Board member. Samaritan’s Feet is a global organization operating in 22 countries, trying to prevent and eradicate illnesses affecting feet by providing shoes for children and adults. Raj has also worked with charities such as Family center who focus on education and prevention of child abuse, as well as American charities working in many African countries to help impoverished communities. His desire, drive and motivation to help his native community led him to be a trustee of Well- Being (Sri Lanka).
Dr. Paul R David
Born in Sri Lanka, Paul is an experienced project manager with engineering, safety and risk management skills gained in the oil and gas production and power generation industries. Paul has over 40 years of work experience with leading operating companies (including Shell and TOTAL A.S.).
Paul’s academic qualifications include a BSc (Engineering) from University of Ceylon and PhD from the University of Birmingham. The subject of this PhD Thesis is the use of a coalition of governance mechanisms for the management of major international projects subject to political uncertainties.
Paul strongly believes in effectively harnessed team effort to achieve pre-set project goals. This belief is based on his experience of working in more than seven countries with personnel with varying levels of expertise and from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Dr. Dan Muthuveloe
Dan, a retired General Medical Practitioner (UK National Health Service), has been committed to rebuilding and restoring communities, in war torn areas of Sri Lanka for many years. He qualified as a doctor from the Colombo Medical Faculty in 1972. He worked in Kurunegala and Matara for six years before emigrating to the UK in 1979. In the nineties he led voluntary medical camps providing primary health care in the hill country in Sri Lanka. In later years, when the north became accessible, he continued with voluntary medical work in places such as Killinochchi, Thunnukai, Mullaithivu, and Sampoor. He led a team of Prosthetists from the UK, to train and set up a Limb fitting service by VenPura (white pigeon) to help over 500 amputees gain custom made modular prosthetic limbs made to British standards.
He has worked in the Chettikulam refugee camp soon after the end of the war and also in Green Hospital Manipay, providing primary health care in a voluntary capacity. Following the Tsunami in 2004 and following the end of the war in 2008, he has been involved with rehabilitation, housing, building wells, feeding the hungry, providing interest free loans for livelihood projects, and supporting widows. He has also been involved with providing remedial educational opportunities to students who were war displaced and providing student grants to undergraduates from poor homes. He has helped to establish a number of local charities to do this work such as Oru Paanai (One Pot) which feeds 43,000 children in 100s of schools and has a project for children who are hard of hearing; and Jeeva Ootru ( Living Springs) a grant giving trust that rebuilds war torn lives.
Melvyn Sears
Melvyn Sears brings considerable international experience in project management to Well-Being (Sri Lanka), having been engaged in telecommunications projects in Hong Kong and China over many years. He is a telecommunications professional and Chartered Engineer whose early career in British Telecom included periods as Personal Assistant to the Chairman, head of BT's Customer Relations Office, and as a Director of BT Vision in BT's television arm.
In recent years, his career has included periods in operational management in the NHS alongside voluntary work in the charitable sector as Head of Fundraising for a ground-breaking project in North London engaged in building a centre for older people, committed to inter-generational activities, and as a School Governor responsible for building development. He currently works in a voluntary capacity at University College Hospital in patient information.
His qualifications include a BSc in Mathematics and Physics from Exeter University. He is a Member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. He has a Diploma in Finance and Accounting which equips him well for the role of Treasurer of the project.