Col. Christopher Rego (Retd.)

Founder

Col. Christopher Rego (Retd.) is the co-founder / founder trustee of Sunbird Trust (2014)[1], an Indian non-profit working on education and tribal welfare from Bengaluru.

Colonel Christopher Rego is a retired Indian Army officer and the co-founder and chief executive of Sunbird Trust, a charitable organisation registered in December 2014 that works on education in conflict-affected areas of north-east India under the description 'Peace through Education'.

He founded the trust with his wife Myrna Rego after more than three decades of service in the Corps of Engineers, much of it in Mizoram and Manipur.

Early life and education

Rego is a graduate of the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla and the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun.

Career

Rego served for over thirty years in the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army before retiring in January 2016. During his service he had two extended postings in Mizoram and Manipur, on deputation with the Assam Rifles and the Border Roads Organisation, where he saw the effects of civil disturbance and armed conflict at first hand.

He and Myrna Rego began sponsoring the schooling of children from the region out of their own resources, and registered Sunbird Trust as a secular, non-denominational charitable organisation in December 2014. The trust sponsors the education of thousands of children across Manipur, Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, builds and supports schools and hostels, and runs community engagement programmes in remote and conflict-affected villages. He is the trust's chief executive officer.

Outside his work with the trust he is an author, pianist and amateur herpetologist.

Recognition

In 2016 Rego was elected an Ashoka Fellow for South Asia for his approach to peace-building through education.[2][3][4]

Sunbird Trust

Sunbird Trust was founded in 2014 by Col Christopher Rego (Retd), drawing on his years in Mizoram and Manipur, on the belief that education is a catalyst for peace in Northeast India. It works in remote and conflict-affected areas through school transformation and government school programmes, scholarships and sponsorships for students, a teachers' training academy, a leaders' fellowship, and community development and livelihood support.

Sunbird Trust reports the following, on its own site: