G.John

THREAD, Siddharthvillage, Odisha
G.John began his career in social sector as Chief community Officer for fishermen and agricultural workers in Kottar social service society, Kanyakumari ,TamilNadu. .
Passion for rural developmental work ignited by Dr.John staley , the first Field Director of Oxfam , India who founded SEARCH, and his internship experience in International Youth Centre-
VYC[New Delhi ] and experience with IGSSS/Misereor , West Germany as Field Officer for Orissa state led him to create THREAD[Team for Human Resource Education and Action for Development] .
As the Founder President and Executive Director of THREAD he led the Organisation to great heights wherein it emerged as a major training centre for south Asia which practised and advocated people-oriented sustainable development especially for socially excluded communities like adivasi, dalit , women and others besides conducting high ending self growth training for UNICEF staff and partners and other educational institutions and Non Government Organisations in South Asia
G.John’s interest in training as an instrument of change dates back to the mid seventies. His participation in one year special course on development( 1976-77) Human relation training techniques for the development field by Dr. John Staley under the auspices of a newly registered body called SEARCH, in Bangalore marked a turning point in his action plans for future. Equally important was his work experience, after completing the course: first, among the fisherfolks in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu for about two years then as a field Officer of IGSSS/ counter part of Misereor for four years when he came into contact with NGOs of Orissa, MadhyaPradesh and Rajasthan, under diverse auspices like church, Gandhian etc with diverse approaches and types of services. This four year experience helped him to appreciate the reality of diversity and its richness, and he was convinced that innovative training was badly needed to make development efforts effective. And so his interest in training continued. He underwent series of special training related to human relation and communication.

Training intervention of THREAD in tribal pockets of Orissa led to the formation of ONS [Orissa Nari Samaj]-a state level federation of more than 250,000 tribal people [belonging to 65 tribes and other dalit groups in 55 blocks]. Conflict resolution skills facilitated among them prevented the spread of conflict during the Kondhamal conflict.

The amalgamation of courses he did with Tavistock Institute of Psychology [UK] and Human Capacities Corporation[USA], Three years internship course- process work/Lab sessions-- ISISD Indian Society for individual and social development, New Delhi founded by Prof. Pulin Garg, IIM, Ahmedabad, and his inner exploration emerged as ‘Avishkar’-a training module for Inner and Organisation Transformation. Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Orissa [especially ICDS and Mahila Samakia] benefited from this training module .

IRCOD [Institute for Responding to Conflict and Development] and AIRCOD [Asian Institute for Responding to Conflict and Development] were the result of his endeavour to address the inter-community conflict emerging in north-eastern states of India and in other SAARC countries. He was trained in Conflict Resolution at Sally Oak colleges, UK.

At present, most of the NGOs and donor agencies in Orissa and elsewhere have the staff trained by thread either in short term or in long term courses. Some of the trainers who are trained by the founder of thread are freelancers now for NGOs in Orissa and even for other states.

Eco village Design course [EDE] course John attended in Seiben Linden and Zegg Berlin provided the foundation for initiating more than three thousand indigenous people’s eco village through ONS.John is now guiding the organisation in this direction.