Arise is extending a warm welcome to Sr Sherly Thomas as our new India Coordinator, and saying a grateful goodbye to Sr Arpan Carvalho, our exceptional first Coordinator, who is now leaving to take on a provincial role in her congregation.
Sr Sherly (left) is taking over from Sr Arpan as India Coordinator.
Arise has worked closely with Sr Sherly and her NGO, Seva Kendra, in recent years as a part of our anti-trafficking programmes, and we are looking forward to formally welcoming her as the newest member of the Arise team. She is a brilliant organiser, having coordinated the social work of her diocese prior to beginning her career in anti-trafficking activism and outreach. She has worked tirelessly to protect communities and young people across Assam through awareness-raising, skills-training and income-generation.
Sr Sherly ran pandemic care centres and coordinated crucial humanitarian relief to protect families during COVID.
Sr Sherly led life-saving community work throughout the COVID pandemic, opening 3 care centres to care for the sick and vulnerable, met with phenomenal success. She was a steadfast and visionary partner throughout our pandemic operations. She is currently providing emergency humanitarian relief in Assam during a particularly dangerous flooding season. We are looking forward to working with her more closely, and thank her congregation for allowing her to spend time working with us.
Sr Sherly, commenting on her appointment, wrote: ‘I feel it is a privilege and great responsibility. I am grateful and happy to work with you all. I am deeply touched by the vision and mission of Arise Foundation and I am so happy to be part of it.’
Our CEO, Luke de Pulford, met Sr Arpan in 2015 - prior to her presidency of the anti-trafficking network, AMRAT. Prior to her AMRAT involvement, Sr Arpan spent twenty years carrying out social work . She has been foundational and absolutely essential to the expansion of Arise’s presence in India, and has masterfully developed lifesaving partnerships, anti-slavery networks and prevention projects across the subcontinent.
Sr Arpan, looking back at her tenure, said 'Thank you for always believing in me and giving me the space and freedom to work the way it had to be in India. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to make the presence of Arise and be part of the infant journey of Arise. Arise couldn’t have found a better person to join them than Sr. Sherly to guide its ventures in India.'
We thank her for her guidance, dedication and for her key role in our emergency COVID operations and the establishment of the Gauri Migrant Project.
It was an honour to have Sr Arpan visit the London team and attend the Trust and Liberation launch earlier this year. Fortunately, we will continue to work with Arpan on various projects.
Jess Templeman, our COO, thanked Sr Arpan by calling her ‘an honour to work with - and utterly central to the success of our work in India so far’.
We extend our deepest thanks to Sr Arpan’s congregation, for allowing her to work with us throughout the last few years.
