Piyoo Kochar,

Motivator & Mentor, Oxfam International Youth Partnership

Mentee:

Omphile, 16, Botswana

Piyoo Kochar is a graduate student at Annenberg School For Communication, University of Southern California, studying for a Masters degree in Communications Management specializing in emerging communication technologies and gender issues. She graduated from Institute of Health Management and Research in 2004 with a major in Health Communication cum laude. She wrote her senior thesis on increasing access to quality health care for people living with HIV/AIDS in West Bengal, India.

Previously having worked at IT for Change, she managed programmes on using new communication technologies in resource-constrained settings as a tool for social change with specific emphasis on changing the gender relations and social structures. She also received WSIS Gender Caucus funding for research on perceptions of empowerment among women workers in the IT industry in Bangalore, India. She contributed in creating content for web portal on Information Society Watch focusing on information society issues in the context of development needs of the South.

Piyoo has authored and presented papers at conferences, including at National consultation on young people: towards a health future, developing communication strategies to combat HIV/AIDS, adolescent health: stock taking and planning for future and at world student summit on health and society and more recently for a seminar reader titled 'youth participation: time for action' for youth and politics: crucial factors in democratic decision making.

Piyoo is an Oxfam International Youth Partnerships - Motivator and Mentor, for future global leaders. She was one of the key members of the Toronto Youth Advisory Committee at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada, 2006. She advocated at 2005 World Summit on Information Society, Geneva for role of young people. She has organized numerous trainings and events in India and internationally.