Stephen was born and raised in Bangalore, India, and now lives in Porur. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, and owns a tour business in Chennai.
Stephen served as our Country Manager and on-site consultant for our India service programs until 2018. Since 2019, when we started our service program in Nepal, he has served as our Nepal Country Manager.
He leads all teams of volunteers in Nepal and manages the day-to-day logistics and volunteer engagement of our Nepal service program.
What is your favorite travel memory?
My favorite travel memory is visiting St. Lucia with Global Volunteers and the opportunity to serve the underprivileged children in Anse la Raye and learning about the local community and its culture. I also loved the beauty of the island. I would love to go back again.
My favorite travel moment has been spotting a tiger in the wild on an elephant safari in Mudumalai Forest in Southern India. It was the most incredible moment in my life.
How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?
I have been working for Global Volunteers for the past 18 years. And the opportunity to serve the underprivileged and needy children in my community through Global Volunteers helped me to find true joy and happiness in serving others. It has helped me to love children and serve them in many ways possible.
It gives me immense satisfaction that, through Global Volunteers, I have been able to contribute to the lives of many needy children in a very positive way and continue to do so.
What is the best story you've heard from a return student?
One of the boys whom Global Volunteers sponsored to go to college on the India service program successfully completed his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. After he found a job, the first thing he did was start to help another needy student by paying her college tuition. Now he wants to help others, especially children in his community in as many ways possible. This reinforces my belief that any help you do bears fruit in many ways.
If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?
I would love to go on Global Volunteers Tanzania service program.
As we do in Nepal, in Tanzania Global Volunteers serves one of the most underprivileged communities in the world and I would also like to personally contribute my services to this community and its children.
This is a community which lacks many basic facilities like electricity, running water, etc. It would be a very nice experience to live in the community and experience life from the perspective of the local people.
What makes your company unique? When were you especially proud of your team?
The desire to serve the underprivileged children around the world to make them better citizens of tomorrow makes my organization, Global Volunteers, a unique one as we have been serving children for the past 36 years. When our volunteers return to our communities again and again, it just makes me so happy that we are doing good work and this has motivated our volunteers to return again and again to serve with us.
Also, over the years Global Volunteers have touched the lives of thousands of children in a very positive way.
What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?
For my organization, Global Volunteers, the biggest successful factor has been our true commitment to help children and local communities worldwide.
Through our Vision “To wage peace and promote justice”, guided by our philosophy of service, ensures that we truly serve others, wage peace, and promote justice. The success of these has inspired our volunteers to return back to serve with us again and again.
Also, Global Volunteers motivates, inspires, and supports its staff in a very positive way, which has helped me to continue to work with them for the past 18 years.