About us

The Cycle is a nonprofit that has been working with communities in need for over 25 years. We unlock the power of women and girls to build gender equality. As an organisation we encourage and implement a cycle of empowerment. Our work is split into three pillars: Water, Women and World.

Our Values

+Built to last

We invest in solutions that will outlive us. Sustainability is at the core of every project.

+Locally-led

Our projects are designed by on the ground teams who work with the communities to create practical solutions.

+Honest

Our work and how we spend your donations is transparent and accountable.

+Inclusive

We seek to serve everyone in a community, especially those most vulnerable through a lack of gender equality: women, girls, non-binary and transgender people.

Our History

In 1998, three friends: Andrew Barrs, David Crosweller and Bhavesh Radia; co-founded Wherever the Need, a non-profit with the single focus of helping people. They wanted to make sure that projects were sustainable, effective and the maximum amount of donation reached people in need. The original work supported children suffering from radiation-derived illnesses in and around Chernobyl, expanded to refugees of the Balkans war and helping children in southern Africa impacted by HIV/Aids. Following the Asian tsunami in 2004, they turned their attention to Tamil Nadu in south-east India. Under the guidance of Dr Shanmugasundaram Pillai Paramasivan, PhD, one of the world's leading experts in ecological sanitation and sustainable water systems, they quickly realised that the linchpin of any development work was, in fact, sanitation. In next to no time, The Cycle (then called Sanitation First) was born, rapidly becoming a leader in ecological sanitation.

Building toilets changes peoples’ lives, but the construction of toilets in schools resulted in our team witnessing their next social challenge. As children were reaching the age of puberty, as many as one in five girls were finding it difficult to stay in education due to the lack of sanitation facilities and suitable period products. Pioneered by our CEO in India Padmapriya, our award-winning, gender-inclusive period education programme was developed, and we discovered the ideal solution to keep girls in school: safe toilets and period education, which became another of our core areas of work.

Our work was founded on a core value of partnership with nature and everything we do considers our effect on the planet. We never stop pushing ourselves in the development of solutions to fight the climate crisis. Now, in collaboration with Cornell University and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University we are pioneering new ways to convert human waste into resources to benefit smallholding farms and regenerate the soil.

Today, after 25 years of impact we are known as The Cycle in order to represent the full spectrum of work we do. The Cycle continues to rely on strong ties to sanitation professionals, local government and the communities in which we work, ensuring we are always delivering solutions that work and last.

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Partners & Supporters

Thank you to all our generous supporters. Thank you for being a part of our journey and for your support and investment. We can’t wait to see what we will achieve together in the coming years.

Trusts & Foundations

Corporate Donors

Brand Partners 2022/23

Research Partners

Growth Development Partners 2022/23

Awards

Awards won by The Cycle or our implementation partner, Sanitation First India

  • Top-3 finalist in the All-India Swacchovation Contest, conducted by the Ministry of Water & Sanitation, Government of India, 2018
  • Swachh Bharat Excellence Award, Government of Puducherry, 2018
  • Social Change Maker Award – Best Service Provider for Government Schools, TN, 2019
  • Unsung Heroes Award, National MHM Summit, New Delhi, 2019
  • Social Impact Awards, Indian Chamber of Commerce, 2020
  • MHM Champions Award, Gramalaya MHM Summit, Chennai, 2022
  • Social Impact Award, Indian Chamber of Commerce, 2022
  • Tamil Nadu's Women Leaders Award, World Women Leadership Congress & Awards, 2022
  • Imagine Award Of Excellence, Rotary club of Madras North, 2023

Our Core Team

Our core team reaches from the UK to India. All our projects are driven by our on the ground, local workforce.

Tirukurungudi Santhanam Padmapriya
Chief Executive Officer, India

Priya has over twenty years of experience in top management roles of leading international development organisations such as CARE, Save the Children UK, University of Washington I-TECH, and British Council to name a few. Prior to her current role, she was the Country Director of Lebara Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Lebara Telecom in the UK.

Georgina Harding
Chief Executive Officer, UK

Georgina is the CEO of the UK team. As a passionate ambassador to The Cycle for the past 10 years, Georgina has successfully launched multiple creative campaigns on behalf of the charity. Georgina is a highly experienced brand consultant, strategist, and campaign designer. She co-founded the media platform Semaine and was named one of Forbes 30 under 30, 2017.

Nisha Kesavan
Head of Projects, India

Nisha has a decade of experience in programme monitoring, data analysis, documentation and communications with both corporate and not for profit organisations. She is well versed in case study preparation, social media reporting, data ware-housing and IEC material design and development. She is passionate about social reporting and fundraising through impact stories.

David Crosweller
Co-founder, UK

David has managed all aspects of the charity’s work, from literally digging wells and mixing mortar, through to negotiating contracts at the highest level of government. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s most knowledgeable people on non-sewered sanitation and is frequently asked to take part in conferences to share his expertise.

Kumar Mohanasundaram
Head of Finance, India

Kumar has been our Director of Finance since 2018, and has been instrumental in setting up and implementing financial processes and procedures to achieve financial excellence, accountability and trust among donors. He has over twenty years of experience in leading finance operations. He has been leading the finance and administration verticals in international organizations such REACH TB (USAID Project), CARE, University of Washington and British Council.

C. Sundara Manickam
WASH Specialist, India

Sundara Manickam is a construction engineer, WASH specialist, hydrologist and disaster management specialist with over thirty years of experience working with international and UN agencies. He has proven success in constructing, monitoring and evaluating WASH infrastructure, water quality monitoring and surveillance, community training, post-disaster relief and rehabilitation WASH programmes, and solid waste management for rural and urban settings. Prior to his stint with Sanitation First, Mr Manickam has been a technical consultant with RedR India, UNICEF, WASH Institute and ADRA.

Velliangiri N
Training Specialist, India

Velliangiri has over eight years of experience as a WASH master trainer for children and young adults with leading NGOs such as Save the Children and Hand in Hand. He also has rich experience in training Government school teachers, student leaders, community leaders and Govt. Officials at the block and district level on these subjects. He specializes in developing customized curricula using activity based or adult learning principle-based approach depending on the audiencefor training. He has a master’s degree in social work from Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore and functions as the Chairperson of the Board of Studies of the Department since 2018.

Selvakumar Sukumaran
Project Officer – Waste to Wealth Project, India

Selvakumar has over eleven years of experience in the development sector, directly handling projects related to education, child labour, displaced communities, nutrition, health and safe drinking water. Selva is also a native farmer and is currently using his ground level experience in rolling out our Wealth-to-Waste project. In his previous assignments, Selva has worked with both national and international organisations, such as SEA, REAL, ADRA India and Lebara Foundation.

Our Trustees

Our trusted board keeping the The Cycle growing.

Andy Barrs
Co-Founder, Chairman

With a successful history in the property sector, Andy now utilises best practice and his knowledge of finance and marketing to assist The Cycle in becoming a world leader in ecological sanitation. His focus is always on ensuring that donor’s money is used as effectively as possible.

Manda Lakhani
Trustee

Manda stepped up as acting CEO of The Hunger Project in 2020-2022, and successfully steered the organisation through the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. She was instrumental in re-launching and growing their Unleashed Women network. As an experienced business consultant working across multiple fields including marketing and finance, Manda has led teams in a variety of organisations including UK Atomic Energy Authority, Prudential, Hill Samuel, and Nomura Asset Management.

Jaykishen Gokani
Trustee / Head of Fundraising


Jaykishen brings a wealth of entrepreneurial experience primarily from his roles across Financial Services, where he has worked for leading firms such as Goldman Sachs and BlackRock. Jaykishen first got involved with The Cycle in 2020 and has passionately led fundraising projects and corporate partnerships ever since.

Mark Collins
Trustee

Mark has worked in the technology and management consulting industries for over 30 years. He was a Senior Partner in IBM and PwC. During his career Mark advised major banks, airlines, utilities, retailers and government departments in over 15 countries in Europe and Asia. He is a qualified accountant. Mark retired in 2020 and has since been providing pro bono consultancy advice and services to charities and trusts in the NGO sector. In 2021 Mark successfully rowed across the Atlantic Ocean to raise funds for one of the Cycle's projects in Chennai.

Jules Peck
Trustee

Jules is a social entrepreneur and currently the Founding Director of Avon Mutual Bank, a Fellow of The Democracy Collaborative and Fellow and past Trustee of The New Economics Foundation. Jules has had a very varied career working across the SDGs on sustainability and inequality in politics and policy in Westminster, with the UN and at the EC in Brussels. He has also advised many of the world's largest companies and worked in charities such as WWF as well as being a founding Trustee of Share Action and a number of other charities.

Lynn Strongin-Dodds
Trustee

Lynn is an American born financial journalist, living in London. Lynn is editor of Best Execution and writes for publications including derivsource, Investments and Pensions Magazine, European Pensions, Pensions Age, Funds Europe and the Desk. As politics has become the driving force in economics and finance Lynn has rediscovered her passion for political journalism.

Rama Murali
Trustee

Rama Murali is a public health expert with 20 years of experience in workforce development, international health, program planning and management, education, and research. She has spent more than a decade in leadership roles with government agencies, non-profits, and community-based organizations in the United States, India, and Latin America. She is currently the Director of Workforce Development at CAI Global and holds an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health and an MA in Psychology from the University of British Columbia.

Our Advisory Council

Our incredible advisory council keeping the The Cycle whirling.

Ayesha Shand
Advisory Council

Ayesha is a Brand Director (Partnerships and Relationships) who is an endometriosis sufferer and advisor of The Cycle. Away from the charity, she oversees special projects and relationships at Hauser and Wirth and is an ambassador and fundraiser for her family's charity, The Elephant Family.

Chelsea Leyland
Advisory Council

Chelsea is the co-founder of menstrual wellbeing brand; Looni. Chelsea cut her cloth in the fashion industry as an acclaimed DJ. She is a well known activist raising awareness for conditions that affect her personally; endometriosis and epilepsy.

Shreya Lakhani
Advisory Council

Shreya is a Regional Governance Associate at Dalberg Asia. She is on the ground in India connecting us with powerful women and activists in the menstrual space. Over the past 14 years she has undergone multiple surgeries for chronic menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea and is passionate about helping women who are unable to seek the medical help they need.

Pia Stanchina
Advisory Council

Pia is a creative, entrepreneur and transformational business coach. She has coached dozens of leaders at multinational corporations such as VFCorp, Mastercard and IKEA on value creation through innovation and hundreds of women on a 1:1 basis. Pia’s mother is Indian and always role modelled volunteering, fundraising and educating, having helped at Mother Theresa's charity in Calcutta as a child. Pia is honoured to follow in her footsteps as an advisor for The Cycle.

Maksmilian Kallhed
Advisory Council

Maksimilian is an awarded innovation consultant and entrepreneur. He has developed creative processes and agile strategies for global brands, advertising agencies, and educational institutions. In 2018 he was listed as one of the top 50 male advocates for equality in marketing and media, globally. Today Maks is serving as a board member at The World Woman Foundation, Chairperson at Hyper Island AI Business Consultant program and strategic advisor to the Cycle.