Founders and Trustees

A graduate from the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Col. Chris Rego served over three decades in the Indian Army Corps of Engineers prior to his retirement in January 2016. During his service, Chris Rego had two extended tenures in conflict affected Mizoram and Manipur serving on deputation with the Assam Rifles and the Border Roads Organisation. During this time, he personally experienced much of the civil disturbance and violence. Noting the obvious linkage of lack of access to education and empowerment to the radicalization of youth, he and his wife Myrna Rego decided to “be” the difference and commenced sponsoring underprivileged children from their own resources.

Hoping to find a sustainable solution to insurgency and ethnic conflict Chris conceived of the concept of “Peace through Education” executed through a slew of measures including child sponsorship, raising educational infrastructure and community engagement. Woven into this process was building trust not only between people in the insurgency affected areas and their countrymen elsewhere in India, but also between communities that had witnessed generations of ethnic conflict.

The growth of the Peace through Education initiative necessitated a formal identity and Sunbird Trust, a secular, non-denominational organization was registered as a charitable organisation in December 2014. In 2016, for his innovative approach to building peace and amity, Col. Chris was awarded the prestigious international Ashoka Fellowship from South Asia.

Col. Chris is an author, traveller, pianist, nature enthusiast and amateur herpetologist. He has written three books including a travelogue on Kerala and “Cradle of Valour,” the history of the Bombay Engineer Group Centre at Khadki, Pune. His photographs of North East India have graced magazines like Discover India and Mizoram state calendars and tourism brochures. Christopher and his wife Myrna Rego have also researched and documented the cuisine of Mizo tribes.

On retiring from the Army, the Trustees appointed Chris Rego as Chief Executive Officer of Sunbird Trust. He now devotes his time to building the organisation that he had a major role in founding.

Hailing from an Army family and married to Col Chris Rego, founder of Sunbird Trust, Myrna has travelled the length and breadth of India. With B.Com and B.Ed degrees and an M.A. in English Literature, she has always leaned towards the noble profession of teaching. During a three year stay at insurgency-affected Mizoram while Col Chris was posted with the Assam Rifles, she helped found a Nursery School at the Assam Rifles complex at Aizawl. It was during this tenure in Mizoram that the couple seeded the idea of Sunbird Trust when they envisioned providing access to education as a means to peace building and national integration. Desiring to “be the change”, Myrna and Chris began sponsoring the education of lesser privileged children through their own resources. They were soon joined by family members and generous donors. This was the very beginning of the Sunbird Trust’s work of “Peace through Education, an idea that led to the founding of the organisation in 2014.

A constant thought-partner to Col Chris as he, with the support of a committed and passionate team, grew Sunbird Trust to what it is today, Myrna has been deeply involved in mentoring the sponsored students and young team members of the organisation. From 2017, she was a de-facto mother of 35 sponsored students from North East India who had come to Bangalore for their higher studies, mentoring them in every possible way. A French teacher, Myrna Rego personally tutored her young wards and saw those that had chosen the subject successfully pass their examinations. Most of these “Sunbirds” have since graduated, been employed, or are pursuing their post-graduation just as many more youngsters pursuing their higher education have now replaced them at Bangalore and nearby places.

Myrna continues to remain a rock of support not only to many of Sunbird Trust’s sponsored students and alumni, but also contributes to strategizing the way forward for our young, but rapidly growing organisation.

Ryan Lobo is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer who has produced and shot more than 70 documentaries on subjects ranging from the Afghan drug trade, Papua New Guinean tribal rites to King Cobras and various photography projects for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His films have aired on the National Geographic Channel, Animal Planet, OWN and PBS among other networks. His photography and writing have been featured in numerous publications and his limited-edition prints are present in many collections. A TED speaker, Ryan Lobo has co-produced the 2011 Sundance film festival award winning film, “The Redemption of General Butt Naked”. Ryan owns Mad Monitor Productions, a film and photo Production Company based in Bangalore. He has featured in the Boston Review, National Geographic, Caravan, Bidoun Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. Ryan’s first novel, Mr. Iyer Goes to War was released by Bloomsbury UK in 2018

Website: www.madmonitorproduction.net

Dr. Dayaprasad G Kulkarni – a medical doctor, public health specialist, entrepreneur, artist and development consultant; founded Doctors For Seva Arogya Foundation – a flexible micro volunteering platform for doctors to provide free healthcare services to over 100000 underserved beneficiaries in 7 countries. He has also set up the Global Health Volunteer Alliance, a not for profit company in the US, having a network of over 25,000 medical professionals. He is a medical graduate working for the last ten years at the community level with vulnerable, marginalized and underserved populations. In 2007, after completing his Masters in Clinical Research from the UK, he founded MadhyamaPrasaran and Scientific Research Foundation, a multimedia NGO, working in the field of health and education. He is also the founder of Handbloom, a socio-bio-ethical enterprise, which brings together diverse eco-friendly, biodegradable products made by communities and individuals who are highly vulnerable in society and are presently not self-sustained. Dr.Dayaprasad is an Erasmus Mundus Fellow, an APLP Fellow from the East West Centre, Hawaii, USA and Common Purpose Navigator Fellow, UK. He has previously worked with International organizations like the Wellcome Trust, MSF, PSI, HIVAIDS Alliance, University of Manitoba. He also serves as the Scientific Advisor for the Confederation of NGO’s of Rural India with over 15,000 members. As Senior Assistant Professor at the Trans-Disciplinary University in Bangalore he is the Program Director of the Study Abroad program and teaches “Introduction to Global Public Health, Complimentary and Integrative medicine” and “Humanities in Medical Education in India”. He has done over 25 theatre productions, 1 feature film, 3 short films, animation videos and several sustainability, entrepreneurship, leadership training and Organizational development workshops. Currently, Dr Dayaprasad is working towards creating a common pool of human resources working in the developmental sector. This pool will be a source of knowledge, data and expertise capable of providing support and help to any individual or organization needing it. He is also developing a leadership program for primary healthcare workers in Low and Middle income countries.

Hailing from Kolkata, Sonal graduated in Biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay as the most outstanding student of her batch. She went on to obtain a PhD from University of Glasgow, Scotland and University of Montpellier II, France. Throughout her student life across different countries of the world, Sonal passionately mentored younger students in Science and Research. It was here that she discovered a love for teaching and a strong intent to bring equitable education to children who were “left behind”. Led by this motivation, she opted to join the two-year Teach for India Fellowship in 2015 where she worked with children from disadvantaged communities at a government school in Pune. Her understanding of inequity deepened during an educational internship in the heart of the conflict zone at Bandipora in Kashmir, where she realised that not only education, but the very joys of childhood were far-fetched dreams for many children.

Sonal has played multiple roles at Sunbird Trust starting as an intern in 2017 at the Trust-supported Happiness Home for HIV-affected children at Pangzwal in Churachandpur district of Manipur. To continue pursuing her intent to work with conflict-affected children, Sonal joined the Trust full-time as the School Leader of then-fledgling Lyzon Friendship School, and started living in Singngat, a remote village in Churachandpur district on the Indo-Mynanmar border. She was later given the responsibility to be Sunbird’s first Chief Operating Officer overseeing the work of the organisation across four North-eastern states. She travelled to remotest villages, build meaningful connections with far-flung communities, and strengthened partnerships with security officials and local partners. As COO, Sonal played a key role in ideating on strategies, streamlining processes and investing stakeholders in the vision of peace building in the Northeast. Motivated by her field experiences with inequity and conflict she went on to pursue Masters in Public Policy and Governance at Azim Premji University to deepen her understanding of these ‘wicked’ problems. During her academic pursuit, she continued her association with Sunbird as Chief Mentor.

As she steps into the role of Trustee, Dr. Sethia carries with her not just the legacy of her work but the hopes and dreams of countless children. From Singngat’s Lyzon Friendship School to the policymaking tables where she consults and researches, her journey continues to be fueled by the belief in Sunbird Trust’s vision of ‘Peace through Education.’