Dr. Raj Aluri is the founder and President of the International Friendship Ministries and the Columbia International Festival. He is also the founder and president of the Agape English Language Institute for Internationals, USA.

Dr. Aluri was born and grew up in Hyderabad, India. He founded International Friendship Ministries in 1981 with the encouragement of several churches. Knowing firsthand the difficulties immigrants and refugees face in the area of communication when they first arrive in the United States, Dr. Aluri founded the Agape English Language Institute for Internationals, Inc., (AELI), in 1993. Now, as a U.S. Government Department of Homeland Security approved school, that institute provides instruction in English-as-a-Second Language to internationals in Columbia and Greenville, South Carolina.

Dr. Aluri is married to Kathy from Windsor, Ontario, Canada. They have six children: Lydia, James, Paul, Lilian, John, and Mark.

Elan and his wife, Rani, are from Singapore. They came to Indiana in 1993 as international students. They moved to South Carolina in 1996 for graduate studies.

Elan started as an intern at International Friendship Ministries (IFM) in 1999 while studying in Columbia, SC. He joined the staff of IFM in 2000. In 2003, the whole family moved to Bloomington, IN to establish a new branch of IFM. In 2006, IFM was one of the founding members of Bloomington International Student Ministries (BISM), a ministry partnership of several international student ministries and local churches in Bloomington.

Elan & Rani have three children: Prasad, Sejal, & Kiran.