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Sunita Vyavaharkar Sunita Vyavaharkar, Capacity Building Manager (BELUN), a national organization formed in cooperation with ACDI/VOCA, CARE International and Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) to implement the USAID-funded Strengthening the NGO Sector Program in Timor-Leste. The program builds upon the experience of CICR’s Civil Society Capacity Building Project (CSCB), which supported over 150 local NGOs and community groups nationwide to implement community-based initiatives toward reducing tensions and preventing violent conflict. Sunita has been a CICR partner since 2001, when she joined the CSCB Project and currently works to strengthen the existing capacities of BELUN’s partners and to support the team’s transition toward Timorese-management and leadership in the coming year.
In addition to Ms. Vyavaharkar’s experience in Timor-Leste, she has been examining issues related to forced migration in the Great Lakes Region since 1999. While a student at the University of Dar es Salaam, she conducted research in the refugee camps along the border of Rwanda on the role of Rwandan women in the process of reconciliation. In the summer of 2005, she explored customary law practices among Burundian refugees in camps in Kibondo, Tanzania and in March 2006, she worked on a graduate student consultancy team to assist FilmAid International’s team in Kakuma, Kenya to implement a monitoring protocol for their repatriation program with Sudanese refugees. Sunita received her undergraduate degree in international relations from Tufts University and her Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. suni.belun@gmail.com
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