Our Focus

  • The prevention of vitamin A deficiency disease (VADD) in children: the world’s number one cause of childhood blindness

  • The prevention of anemia in expecting mothers: a major cause of life-threatening childbirth complications

  • Since the beginning of the coronavirus, SevaChild has been providing food rations to literally thousands of impoverished families facing hunger and starvation
  • Providing one-month food rations to literally thousands of impoverished families facing hunger and starvation due to years of lock downs caused by the Coronavirus

  • The prevention of disease from contaminated water -- drilling wells and installing water pump systems in leper colonies and rural villages where the availability of clean drinking water has become a serious issue

Board of Directors

SevaChild President

Rick Carlton

President and Founder

Rick began volunteering In the 1980s to bring international attention to the plight of the Tibetan people while maintaining a career in the health and nutritional industry. He has served for the last 12 years as the president of SevaChild. His focus has been on protecting young children from the ravages of Vitamin A Deficiency Disorder; providing food rations for families facing hunger due to the Covid-19 lockdowns; and most recently on providing clean drinking water by constructing water wells in rural villages where contaminated water sources are causing serious health problems. His interest and concern for the plight of impoverished families in India is the driving force behind this initiative.

Ed Kelly

Director Planned Giving

As President of Hearthstone Wealth Management, Ed works with 14 financial planning professionals in six states, imparting comprehensive financial strategies to clients. His expertise includes tax diversification and Roth conversion strategies, as well as charitable giving approaches that benefit both the donor and the 501(c)(3) organization. Ed is a founding member of SevaChild’s board of directors and serves its donors with his wise counsel for alternative giving.

Ed’s wife Val is the President of the Peninsula Committee Children’s Hospital in Palos Verdes, California, through which she has been instrumental in garnering over $500,000 per year for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Ed and Val have been married for 38 years.

Lynn Wallace Walker

Having moved west to California from Pennsylvania in 1966, Lynn majored in communications at Chapman University, then received her Master’s and Ph.D degrees in communications from Honolulu University in 1995.  She has served as the director of the Plantation Health Spa in Hawaii, consulted on holistic health, and traveled the world as Social Director with Holland America Line for Semester at Sea. Having performed and lectured nationwide on the environment to hundreds of audiences for 14 years, she is an avid environmentalist, videographer, producer, singer, and mother.  Among her colorful achievements is working with the USO, performing in Thailand and Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Over the years, Lynn has assisted many authors in bringing their works to publication.  With a background mainly in production, video production, and the organization of large events, Lynn brings her considerable acumen to SevaChild.  Her passion for helping to make a difference in the lives of children is a formidable asset for SevaChild International.

Anup Chinai

Anup is a seasoned financial management and business planning executive with more than 30 years of experience working for a multinational Fortune 500 company in the United States. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Originally from India, he is particularly passionate about helping the underprivileged in his home country and supports a number of charitable organizations to that end, including SevaChild. In his retirement, he continues to work towards making the world a better place, particularly for the young and destitute.

Advisors

Lisa Piner

A native of Boston, Lisa Piner has lived in southern California since 1960.

Lisa assisted in the operation of a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit organization that delivered funding for the education and medical relief of needy children in India. In her dual capacity as Assistant Financial Officer and Recording Secretary, she was involved in every aspect of its operation; during her tenure, she was responsible for the disbursement of millions of donated dollars to supportive child aid programs in India.

A graduate of the University of California, Irvine, Lisa’s background in psychology complements her fifteen years of experience in the nonprofit sector. She brings her remarkable energy and experience to help guide our vision.

Richard Bergin

Richard has been a cameraman/filmmaker since his teens, starting with music videos and drama, with social documentary being the preferred medium. He has worked on many productions including projects with the BBC and high-profile clients, on subjects ranging from pesticide abuse and poverty in the Dominican Republic, homelessness and activism in the US, wildlife in Brazil, and Spirituality and poverty in India.

Richard recently stated that he “believes Sevachild is one of the most effective small charities he has seen and feels it is ready to expand exponentially because of it’s well proven concept of small-cost delivery per child. “Why would you choose another charity when Sevachild can deliver such life-changing benefits for only pennies per child?”

Richard feels his filmmaking skills, passion to change injustice in the world, and love of India will help Sevachild communicate it’s vital message of hope that by transforming the lives of under-nourished children in India we enrich ourselves and literally change the world.

Dawn Papaila

Service may be in Dawn’s DNA. Her father was the Executive Director of the Sacramento Chapter of the American Red Cross after serving 26 years in the Air Force. And her mother worked to expand access to affordable housing in California.

In her early 20’s, Dawn worked for CIGNA supporting vocational rehabilitation counseling for injured workers. She was later promoted to the position of Operations Manager to redesign how services were delivered across seven offices in four states. Her ability to facilitate and implement process redesign resulted in an invitation to join an elite team of Corporate Systems Planners within Community Care Network led by Deloitte Touche.

After graduate school, Dawn focused on helping employees and organizations succeed by designing systemic workplace learning and performance solutions. From 2004 to 2007, Dawn worked for Tata Interactive Systems, a custom eLearning company based in Mumbai, India. That experience underscored her appreciation for what the US and India offer to one another and the world.

Years later, Dawn formed a woman-owned business to provide workplace learning and performance support for global organizations including TIAA, ACCO Brands, CIGNA, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Raytheon, Northwest Airlines, Nationwide, SAIC, and Lilly. She also developed training for the US Department of Defense where she held secret and interim top secret clearance.

Dawn has a B.S. in Business Management and an M.A. in Educational Technology. She earned her CPT certification from International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) and served on ISPI’s Board of Directors from 2010 to 2012.

When she’s not working, you will find Dawn hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the San Jacinto Mountains and the Anza Borrego Desert.

Jeff Bibler

Jeff has been passionate about serving the world’s poor since studying international relations as an undergraduate and volunteering in the inner cities of both Stockton and San Francisco, California in the early 1990s. After earning his M.A. in international relations in 1993, he served as a full-time volunteer in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, providing hospice care to the terminally ill.

For five years, Jeff managed sponsorship programs at rural schools in India through the nonprofit organization Trees for Life, and was a member of a groundbreaking vitamin A campaign that reintroduced the knowledge of the moringa tree – with its vitamin A-rich leaves – to rural village families in the Indian states of Allahabad and Orissa, a very successful campaign that has since spread to countries in West Africa, Southeast Asia and Central America.

As an educator for over fifteen years, Jeff taught English and video production skills to Indian students in Allahabad and Orissa during his work with Trees For Life. He also founded his own tutoring business in Encinitas, California and is currently a middle school science teacher at King Chavez Academy of Excellence in San Diego.

Jeff’s personal passions include tennis, hiking, mentoring youth, meditation and international travel. He lives in Encinitas, where he spends time at the beach when he’s not teaching or carrying out the work of SevaChild.