ezevino Aram, M.P.H.'00, walks a path of service laid down by her parents. Her footsteps are an extension of their journey, which began when they immersed themselves, body and soul, in India's Gandhian movement. Shaped by the ideals of two spiritually minded social activists, Aram explains why she has agreed to take over their life's work by quoting Mahatma Gandhi: "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable thirst in their mission can alter the course of history."

Aram, who won a Schweitzer Award last year, is obviously in love with the daunting task before her. She is president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Shanti Ashram, founded 15 years ago by her parents. Located in Coimbature, in the hot, lush state of Tamil Nadu, the ashram serves 26 surrounding villages in India's Perur Block. The rambling, two-story facility, with its pretty red tile roof, enjoys a breathtaking view of the Nilgiris Mountains.

Named Shanti, which means "peace," the ashram was presided over by Aram's father until his death in 1997. "It is a commune, a place where people come together motivated by a common call or vision, inspired to work," Aram says. But it is also a "creative laboratory," she adds, "with experiments focusing on challenges facing the nation."

Challenges are tackled at Shanti Ashram on a micro level. "Then, if a solution is discovered, it can be implemented on the macro level," Aram explains. "For instance, a literacy program initiated here in 1986, and aimed at people aged 15 to 35, proved so successful it is now being used as a model across India. It proved that literacy can be achieved in just six months if the program is intense."

Shanti Ashram provides educational and health services to about 100,000 people, who live in squalor. The average family earns no more than 12,000 rupees per year--the equivalent of about $300 American dollars. However, their poverty, as Aram emphasizes, "isn't just about money. Their lack is much more devastating than that. These people have nothing, no doctors in the villages, no public schools, no jobs, and without the kind of assistance we are providing, no hope."

One of Shanti Ashram's projects involves encouraging parents, who become literate, to teach their children. "We don't want the progress we've made to become lost. We want to build on our success," says Aram, who along with her 30-member staff, is also encouraging families to start cottage industries. "What we suggest is a business such as candlemaking or tailoring. Both take little to no start-up capital. They are very doable."

Shanti Ashram was launched with money awarded to Aram's father, a former chancellor of Gandhigram University and member of the Raj Sabha--the upper house of India's parliament. For his efforts to help resolve a border dispute between India and Burma, he won the Niwano and the Rajiv Gandhi peace prizes. The ashram stays afloat through the generosity of individual contributions and is funded by grants sponsored by the United Nations as well as the Indian government. Aram writes the grant proposals herself. "My father was a humble man, a true Gandhian. He dropped his family name because it was an indicator of our position in society, and he decided to use his prize money to uplift people. My father, who became simply M. Aram, had the notion that he should spend the money the same way he earned it--through community service."

A 1993 graduate of India's PSG Institute for Medical Sciences, Aram, 31, completed specialized training two years later at the Masonic Medical Center for Children in Coimbature. But she took time off between degrees to work at Shanti Ashram. "I wanted to give back. I had to give back," she says.

It is hard for Aram to stray far from the ashram, where the floors know her footsteps and remember those of her father. She grew up within its white-washed walls, and she plans to spend her life there. "I left Shanti Ashram in 1999 to study at Harvard at the insistence of my mother. She, in her wisdom, saw the need for me to earn a degree in public health, and she specified Harvard."

Today, Aram is grateful to Minoti Aram for pushing her out the door. "The skills I learned at Harvard are being put to such good use here at Shanti Ashram. Everything I was taught, including what seemed dry to me then, such as biostatistics, now seems like a flower blossoming." For instance, Aram has created a database of baseline indicators to follow the population and provide valuable data that will allow her to evaluate the work she is doing at Shanti Ashram.

Devoted to her mother, who is confined to a wheelchair due to the crippling effects of rheumatoid arthritis, Aram begins and ends her day at Minoti's side. At 7 a.m. they share tea and plan their schedules. Often, while Aram is out making a house call to check on a sick child, her mother--a trained Montessori teacher--is also visiting a village home. "I am a doctor on call and my mother is a teacher on call," says the light-hearted Aram, giggling. Meals, with the exception of dinner, are eaten on the run. Around 10 p.m., in the relative cool of the evening (afternoon temperatures hover around 100 degrees F.), Aram and her mother meet in Shanti Ashram's central courtyard. There, beneath a canopy of banana and coconut trees, they sing classical Indian songs. "For us the singing is therapy. It allows us to unwind. We go to bed feeling ready for sleep," says Aram, whose days extend from shortly after sunrise--when she spends a half hour answering e-mail--to almost midnight.

Shanti Ashram is always open. Visitors pop in at all hours. "That's the way everyone who works here wants it to be," Aram says. "We have purposefully made Shanti Ashram a welcoming place, where no one is ever to be shooed away, no matter what the reason for their arrival." People drop by for a medical exam. They come for a class. They stroll in late, maybe around 11 p.m. when they're finished with their evening meal, which traditionally doesn't begin until 9 p.m. or so, to present them with a wedding invitation or simply to chat. "It is a wonderful way to live, a blessing," she notes. "We have worked hard to establish this rapport with the villagers."

In addition to serving as president of the ashram's ten-member board, Aram teaches at the PSG medical school in Coimbature. She credits her parents for the deep well of energy at her disposal. "They imbued me in their Gandhian optimism, which is very self-empowering. Like Gandhi they refused to think in terms of problems. They saw only challenges--the opportunity to do good--and that's what I try to see also."

Sudha Kotha, who was formerly in charge of alumni affairs at the Harvard School of Public Health, traveled to Shanti Ashram earlier this year. She describes Aram as "a barefoot doctor who single-handedly provides medical services to the children in her area." Just as Aram admires her parents, Kotha uses Aram as a source of inspiration, saying "it is even hard for me to use my name in the same sentence as hers." What has caused this awe Kotha feels for Aram? "It is her genuinely warm nature, her selflessness, her caring," Kotha remarks. "She is the kind of person who makes everyone feel at ease immediately. Vinu (short for Kezevino, a Naga tribal name meaning "peace be with you") is able to focus completely and listen intently to those who come seeking her advice. She will spend whatever time is necessary to meet their needs, often forgoing her own meals and sleep to nurture them."

In the future Kotha hopes to help establish an internship program at Shanti Ashram for students from the School, particularly concentrators in Population and International Health and Community Health. Many of these individuals "need or want international public health experience but don't know how to get it outside of the Peace Corp," says Kotha. "Vinu's work and her relationships within the villages provides an ideal opportunity for our students to implement skills they have learned in the classroom and to build on programs Vinu manages." Currently 15 students from Coimbature's PSG Institute for Medical Sciences and Research are getting on-the-job experience at Shanti Ashram. "The experience is useful to them and to us," Aram says. "I look forward to welcoming interns from Harvard. It will be an incredible joy to have students from two of my alma maters working side by side with me."

Barbara Youngerman-Meyer