Meet Your Instructors

John Dongerdive, Bharathiya Sneha Parivar

John has been serving vulnerable children and families for the last fifteen years. He has M.Div, MA and extensive experiences in the child welfare system worldwide. John travels widely, speaking to churches about the urgency of family strengthening, community development. His passions include developing foster care models, South Asian cultures, and best practices while partnering with indigenous ministries in the majority world. 

At home John enjoys watching Bollywood movies, playing cricket, and soccer. He is married to Heather and has an eight year old daughter Abhilasha. 

Claudia Leon, Buckner International

Claudia Leon graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of the University of Lima, with cum laude qualification. She graduated with a Masters Degree in Civil Law from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Claudia specializes in child protection systems, alternative care measures, with experience and recognition at a national and international level. She has extensive experience in the execution of Prevention and Family Strengthening projects with a community development approach.

Claudia graduated as a care transition coach, from CAFO's Care Transition Accelerator Academy. In 2022 she served as a member of the Board of Directors of the End Violence Initiative, she is a member of the Board of Directors of Peru for Children, the board of directors of the EDUK association, and of the Advisory Board of the Latin American Foster Care Network RELAF.

Randy Daniels, Buckner International

Randy has been with Buckner 32 years, including living in Ethiopia overseeing Africa and Middle East programming. He began his career in social services working for Child Protective Services in Texas for 8 years. Randy has experience designing, developing and operating foster care, family preservation and transitional programs for single mothers as well as youth aging out of the foster care system.

In his current role Randy is responsible for government relations at the state and federal levels, business development, and consulting. He is a credentialed Social Worker, has written several articles including “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child”, “Suffer the Children”, “The Power of Women to Change the World (A Generational Approach to the World’s Orphan Problem)” and, “Is the Church Really Important to Developing Healthy Families?”.

Randy is married with 4 children and 1 granddaughter. He and his family are active members of Gateway Church in Southlake. He became a Christian at the age of 16 while attending a youth retreat in Northern California.