Meet The Team
Dedication. Expertise. Passion.
Our team, which includes visionary leaders as well as devoted experts, is the heartbeat of our organization. Meet the faces behind our achievements and learn about the passion and skill that drives us ahead. We're devoted to attaining greatness and making a difference. Please join us on this amazing trip!
Founders and Directors
Saraswathi Suresh
Founder
Saraswathi Suresh is a family carer to her loved one and has been in this journey since then. Professionally, she was a banker and trainer and has worked in managerial positions for about 17 years. She has completed a post graduate program on Social Development from SPJIMR. Drawing from her own experience and fueled by the desire to make a meaningful difference, she has established FAVMI as a beacon of hope and support for families facing mental health struggles.
“I have embarked on this journey to create a community dedicated to advocating for families navigating through the complexities, empowering & uplifting them along with amplifying their voices ensuring that they are heard, valued and honored”.
Dr. Sachin Ganorkar
Director and Founder Member
Dr. Sachin Ganorkar is a physician and healthcare administrator. He has completed his Masters and Phd in healthcare from TISS, Mumbai and family medicine, diabetology from CMC Vellore. His key areas are delivering patIent-centric care through primary care, health administration and healthcare IT. His interest for a decade has been establishing and managing primary care clinics across the country and clinical standardization using electronic medical records and protocols working with clinics, hospitals and start ups. His current work focuses on enabling health care providers with training, awareness and technology in the field of preventive care, geriatrics and mental health.
His aim at FAVMI is “to create awareness about mental health, advocacy and create mechanisms to address gaps in mental health care delivery in the country”
Geeta Ravi
Director and Founder Member
Geetha is a businesswoman with an MBA from ISB completed under the prestigious 10K Women program. With 40 years of experience in establishing and running a textile empire along with maintaining a huge extended family, Geetha is skilled at identifying patterns in markets and people, and changing to keep up with the times.
As a primary caregiver to many elderly family members, Geetha is a passionate advocate of understanding and providing for mental and emotional health for all ages, and believes it is as important as physical health. With FAVMI, Geetha seeks to initiate a conversation in the spread of mental health education at grassroot level in families, and aims to setup systems for the same.
Our Mentor and Advocacy Expert
Dr. Nirmala Srinivasan
Mentor & Advocacy Expert
Nirmala Srinivasan Ph.D. is a Sociologist, mental health advocate, parent activist and founder of the first advocacy platform for Persons with Mental Illness(PwMI) and their families known as Families Alliance on Mental Illness (FACEMI) India. An Ashoka Fellow, she pioneered the FACEMI model of advocacy to promote the voice of the PwMI and their families in decision making process and programs of the Government. Advocacy for a Rights based approach for resulted in the design of the Assisted Home Care or Door Step Delivery of Mental Health services; and other novel initiatives to draw the spotlight on an Family Care model as a distinct model different to Institutional and Community Care in MI. Her thought leadership underlines FAVMI's efforts to help PMIs and families particularly from the urban middle class background.
Our Advisor
Vijay Nallawala
Advisor
Vijay Nallawala is an Author and Founder, Bipolarindia. A Commerce Graduate majoring in Financial Accountancy, he was previously an entrepreneur for over three decades. His decades of lived experience with bipolar disorder became the inspiration for him to extend outreach to the community. Founded by him in May 2013, Bipolarindia is a unique peer led peer support community using an online-offline hybrid model. Vijay penned down his journey of recovery and his Book, A Bipolar’s Journey: From Torment to Fulfilment was published globally in 2015.