Meet The Team

Peter Whitfield

Abound Leader

Peter is a founding member of the Abound team and takes the lead role in liaison with Christian Endeavour Hostel in Balangir.  Peter is also engaged in fundraising and making the work of CEH known within the UK and liaising with donors.  

Peter re-established his connection with Balangir on a family trip to India in 2020.  Following the request for support from CEH in 2022, Peter has taken responsibility on behalf of his siblings Joy Cooke and Iain Whitfield, for leading the Whitfield family’s initiation of Abound. Peter’s parents worked in Balangir from 1953-1966 and established a strong connection with the area and the church that has now become the Diocese of Sambalpur. It has therefore been a true privilege to continue the work of the family to serve the people of the diocese through raising money to enable the children’s hostel to transform young lives through education and personal development.

Amy Whitfield-Seed

Abound Leader

Amy is a founding member of the Abound team using her considerable organisational skills in all the activities of Abound. Amy has a passion for supporting the development of children in India and particularly in empowering girls and young women.

Amy’s passion grew from time spent in southern India working in an orphanage, during a summer at university. The creation of Abound by her family to support the CEH hostels, provides her with a means to directly impact poor and vulnerable young people in India.

Joy Cooke

Abound Team Member

Joy is a founding member of the Abound team. Born in Odisha she spent her pre-teen years between Balangir and school in the Nilgiri Hills. In 2015 she rekindled her love for her birthplace when she accompanied Ray Whitfield to Balangir for the Boys School Centenary at which he was the main speaker, and saw first-hand the legacy of her parents’ work. She visited again in 2020 with the family.

During the Covid pandemic she was proactive in communication and in fundraising. Her current role is primarily support of the work in prayer and seeking sponsors.

Iain Whitfield

Abound Team Member

Iain was part of the family trip to India in 2020 and along with his siblings is a founding member of the Abound team. He lives in the U.S. and is engaged in fundraising and making the work of Abound and CEH known within his network of church and personal affiliations in the U.S. 

Iain is retired, having first worked for over two decades in commercial banking in a U.S. bank, first in London and then in Boston, Massachusetts, and then for twenty years as an elder and staff member of an independent church based in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Bishop Pinuel Dip

Chairman of CEH

Bishop Pinuel Dip is the chairman of the Hostel Management Committee (HMC) for the CEH and other hostels within the Diocese of Sambalpur. As Bishop he regularly visits and encourages the children in the hostels and in church schools within the diocese. He also leads on the management of the hostels through the HMC and continues to engage and liaise with international and national donors.

Bishop Pinuel was himself a poor village child for whom education was a significant challenge.  However, his determination to learn, despite his parents’ preference for him to stay in the village, led him to walk 6 km each way to school and achieve success in his studies.  Today he is a PhD graduate with decades of experience in leading churches and caring for the needy and vulnerable people within the Diocese.

Mahendra Bag

Project Manager for CEH and Warden of Boys Hostels Balangir

Mahendra is the Project Manager for CEH taking overall operational management for the hostels and work conducted by CEH.  His work includes being a warden for the boys in Balangir, mentoring and tutoring them during their stay at the hostel, plus all the financial and administrative management of the hostels and buildings.

Mahendra has been working as the warden in CEH for over 35 years. As a boy he attended the hostel and schools in Balangir and so has first-hand experience of the transformative power of supporting children and young people through education.  Mahendra is a Batchelor in Social Work, Batchelor in Divinity and has also qualified as a lawyer.

Binita Tandy

Warden of the girls’ hostel, Diptipur

Since November 2021 Binita has been the warden at the girls’ hostel in Diptipur.  While only 23 years old, as a graduate of the hostel herself, she demonstrated the character and enthusiasm to take over the role after the Covid lockdowns. Being a warden means she looks after the girls day to day and undertakes administrative tasks including looking after the financial management of the hostel’s funds.

Binita is combining the warden role with studying part time each day (while the hostel children are at school) for a Batchelor of Education with the aspiration of becoming a teacher one day.