Dayasagar Community Staff

 

Ryan Phillips

 

Ryan Phillips has been living and working in the Himalayas since 2002 and is semi-fluent in the Nepali language. From 2003 until 2009 he was the project coordinator of the "Smoothpath" project under IDEAS in the remote village of Daragaon, West Bengal, India. This project reconstructed the footpaths linking the village to the outside world, founded a primary school (Red Star Academy) with 80 students and established a Health Center (Daragaon Samajik Swasta Kendra) which serves a community which was formerly lacking medical care.

 

Graduating with a degree in Global Studies Ryan went on to receive training as a TESOL English teacher, Wildernes EMT (EMT-B) through NOLS and graduated from a 7 month long course in Primary Health Care. Ryan has traveled extensively in the Bhutan, Nepali and Indian Himalayas, is married to Amanda Phillips and is the father of 2 sons.

 

 

Amanda Phillips

 

Amanda Phillips lives in Kaffer India along with her husband and their two amazing boys, Asher and Shepherd. She looks after the women in the area when they are pregnant and sees after the births if the mothers so wish. She is a NARM Certified Professional Midwife, from the National College of Midwifery, and she has a B.S. in Science from Colorado Christian University. Amanda has a heart to help the women in her neighborhood to not be afraid of birth, and to view it not as a chance for death but as an opportunity for life. Going to births is perhaps the greatest thing in the world for her, you should ask her why in person though, because it would take more than a one paragraph bio to explain it here. She also would like to see the women start a mothers' club where she can teach her two favorite pastimes, crocheting and maternal/child nutrition (she's still not sure the latter is a pastime).

 

 

Ian Kile

 

Ian Kile lives in Daragaon, India and has taught at the Red Star Academy for five years. Ian teaches English for classes 1 through 5 as well as mathematics for classes 3, 4, and 5. At the same time, he works to give kids a well-rounded education based on experiences and application rather than rote memorization confined to the world of standardization. Ian is constantly working towards giving children of Daragaon an ever increasing desire to ask questions, be aware of the world around them, and strive for the good their community. This has been Ian’s life for the past five years and nothing has given him greater pain or joy. To use his words, “I didn't know that I could be this happy and I could not have planned this for myself if I had tried.”

 

 

Halley Brunsteter

Halley Brunsteter grew up in Oklahoma City, OK with the intention of someday being able to help people. After leaving her home state, she received a congressional scholarship to live in Germany. Following that time period, she went on to study Anthropology/ International Affairs and Asian Studies with a Chinese emphasis at Colorado College. Over the past decade, she has worked to raise money for a variety of non-profit organizations including Court Appointed Special Advocates and Save the Children. She had a brief stint at both the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, Austria, planning large events and in Braunschweig, Germany, teaching English and translating technical texts. After her time in Vienna, she was given a fellowship to work with former Uranium Workers in order to have their community based research and saddening stories presented to members of congress. Halley is Wilderness First Responder certified and is trained in Geographical Information Systems and grant writing.