Uploaded October 2021 | Updated September 2026, 11 hours ago
Project SASS at IndianCare, ‘Together Towards Tomorrow’
Project SASS (South Asian Student Support) promoted the welfare and wellbeing of Victoria’s South Asian International Students from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. It is supported by Study Melbourne’s International Student Welfare Program 2020 and the Victorian Government. Project SASS 2020 was an innovative, online, student-led project delivering culturally appropriate, evidence-based activities to increase students’ leadership skills, workplace knowledge and employability, social cohesion and addressing their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Learn more about the program, here.
In this webinar, speakers discuss the creation of the program, the reasoning for it, and highlight the successes and next steps.
Speakers:
Jaya Manchikanti co-founded IndianCare in 2013 and has been in the role of the President since that time. Jaya has a background in community development with more than 22 years' of experience working across not-for-profit organisations, local and state governments. She is currently a full-time research student in the Integrated PhD course at Victoria University and undertakes a great amount of meaningful volunteer work.
Dr Jyothsna Rao is an accomplished health professional with a background in medical research. She arrived in Australia in 1996 as a spouse of an international student from Bengaluru, India and moved to Melbourne in 2003 to start a PhD in hormone function and chronic disease. She was awarded the Australian Academy of Science fellowship in 2013, to initiate a research collaboration between Australia and India. Her career as a researcher ignited a passion for community health and nutrition. She completed her qualifications in human nutrition and professional development in health promotion. Jyothsna has extensive experience across primary school councils, higher education, community, and primary care partnership settings. She teaches and mentors students in universities, clinics, and the wider community. She believes that student wellbeing is strongly associated with building feelings of relatedness to their communities. In her personal life, she is a hands-on parent to two teenagers, one in university and another in high school. She is very involved in their learning activities and takes an active interest in discussing issues in politics, health, and social justice with them.
Krina Shah is a Master of Social Work graduate from the University of Melbourne keen to work in the community development and family violence sector. She is also a mental health advocate working to support the emotional wellbeing of International students and multicultural communities in Victoria.
Project SASS at IndianCare, ‘Together Towards Tomorrow’
Project SASS (South Asian Student Support) promoted the welfare and wellbeing of Victoria’s South Asian International Students from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. It is supported by Study Melbourne’s International Student Welfare Program 2020 and the Victorian Government. Project SASS 2020 was an innovative, online, student-led project delivering culturally appropriate, evidence-based activities to increase students’ leadership skills, workplace knowledge and employability, social cohesion and addressing their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Learn more about the program, here.
In this webinar, speakers discuss the creation of the program, the reasoning for it, and highlight the successes and next steps.
Speakers:
Jaya Manchikanti co-founded IndianCare in 2013 and has been in the role of the President since that time. Jaya has a background in community development with more than 22 years' of experience working across not-for-profit organisations, local and state governments. She is currently a full-time research student in the Integrated PhD course at Victoria University and undertakes a great amount of meaningful volunteer work.
Dr Jyothsna Rao is an accomplished health professional with a background in medical research. She arrived in Australia in 1996 as a spouse of an international student from Bengaluru, India and moved to Melbourne in 2003 to start a PhD in hormone function and chronic disease. She was awarded the Australian Academy of Science fellowship in 2013, to initiate a research collaboration between Australia and India. Her career as a researcher ignited a passion for community health and nutrition. She completed her qualifications in human nutrition and professional development in health promotion. Jyothsna has extensive experience across primary school councils, higher education, community, and primary care partnership settings. She teaches and mentors students in universities, clinics, and the wider community. She believes that student wellbeing is strongly associated with building feelings of relatedness to their communities. In her personal life, she is a hands-on parent to two teenagers, one in university and another in high school. She is very involved in their learning activities and takes an active interest in discussing issues in politics, health, and social justice with them.
Krina Shah is a Master of Social Work graduate from the University of Melbourne keen to work in the community development and family violence sector. She is also a mental health advocate working to support the emotional wellbeing of International students and multicultural communities in Victoria.
