Nepal

Manisha Maharjan is a development professional with over nine years of experience in project management and evaluation. She has a Master’s degree in Public Management from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and an MBA. In her role as Project Manager at Handicap International Nepal, she played a key role in managing the Strengthening Inclusive Education in Nepal Project, leading the coordination with consortium partners to ensure the efficient utilization of financial resources. Manisha is deeply committed to creating positive change in communities and is particularly interested in the field of disability inclusion. Her passion for development work extends beyond her professional endeavors, as she actively works for organizations that advocate for children’s rights and supports education for underprivileged children.

Prajwal Khadka has been working as the Associate Director of Development and Partnership at Teach For Nepal (TFN) for the past eight years. He was previously selected as one of the top applicants and signed up to teach as a TFN Fellow in a rural village of Nepal for two years, where he realized that the low academic outcome of his students wasn’t merely because of classroom investment, but also of systemic issues. This grassroots experience gave him a deeper understanding of the community, social issues, and how culture, history, and politics create injustices that could be reflected in the communities. It also enhanced his leadership, interpersonal skills, and the ability to work in a cross-cultural setting. Having understood that larger community involvement was critical for change in educational outcomes, he then joined TFN’s core team where he now leads Fundraising and Public/Private Partnerships. His portfolio involves working with government officials, particularly at the Ministry of Education, private corporations of Nepal, and other agencies to enhance and support funding and collaboration necessary for TFN. Besides TFN, he has experience working on issues like LGBTI rights, leprosy patient welfare, public education improvement, and youth advocacy. He is also serving as a visiting faculty for undergraduate students.

Anil Chaudhary is a development enthusiast with a specialization in Development Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL). Originally from Nepal, Anil has nearly a decade of experience in the areas of MERL and has excellent expertise in designing the M&E plan and framework for the diverse and complex nature of development projects. He has led or co-led several surveys and evaluations in a wide range of interventions such as public health, agriculture, and livelihood, education, and humanitarian response. He is equipped with excellent quantitative and qualitative research skills. With sound technical skills for designing the M&E system at the program and organization level and developing robust data collection tools for monitoring purposes, he has worked in numbers of international organizations in the past including bilateral multilateral (UN) and INGOs. He has also provided consulting services for numbers of INGOs and NGOs working in different geographical areas of Nepal. Be it writing progress reports for the project or organization or writing impact stories, he has sound writing skills. His other capacities include designing project and program evaluations, developing questionnaires, and collecting data using web-based applications. An excellent communicator with stakeholders and partners, he has sound workshop and training facilitation skills. With recent engagement in academia, he is passionate about social research, particularly in the areas of humanitarian relief, social protection, economic development, and public health. After the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, he worked in different disaster response interventions. Furthermore, he is capable of being able to generate quality data and evidence from the field in harsh situations. Besides, Anil is a passionate traveler, photographer, interactor, and cultural explorer.

Host Organization: American Red Cross

Role at Host Organization: At the American Red Cross, Anil will serve as the QDL Research & Analysis Fellow: supporting research, analysis, and learning efforts for International Services Department Strategy 2023.

Swarnima Shrestha is a Development Communications professional with nine years of experience in the field. She has a master’s degree in Development Communications and a Master of Arts in English Literature. Swarnima has a wide range of experience of leading communication initiatives in different organizations. Most recently, she served at UN Capital Development Fund as Communications and Knowledge Management expert. Prior to that she worked at UNICEF Nepal serving in the most severely affected locations after the Nepal earthquake 2015. Swarnima started her career as a producer of an extremely popular radio program called ‘Chatting with my best Friend’ which addressed the pressing issues faced by youths, especially those related to sexual and reproductive health.  Being involved in this highly listened to radio program made her a popular voice among millions of Nepalese youths and provided her with an opportunity to understand different social issues. She has experience of working in various sectors such a gender, HIV and AIDS, child rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and emergency communications. In her personal life, Swarnima is involved in the social sector through volunteer and advocacy activities. This includes acting as President of the Rotaract club of Baneshwor Royal, an international youth club, and co-founding the Snowyak Foundation, which helps support the education of marginalized children in the remote part of the upper Dolpa region of Nepal.

Host: IANGEL

Fellow role at IANGEL: Swarnima will serve as a Communications & Fundraising Fellow, playing an integral role in external communications and in creating social media and website content. She will maintain high quality fundraising systems, helping to plan and execute donor events.

Nilima has five years of experience in the non-profit sector, earned a Masters Degree in Inter Asia NGO Studies from Sungkonghoe University in South Korea. While working as a Youth Manager with Marie Stopes International Nepal, she helped increasing the access of rural and urban young people of Nepal to sexual reproductive health information and services. Previously, Nilima worked with a youth-based local NGO to build peaceful and democratic Nepal. Nilima has volunteered as a UNESCO Cultural Exchange Volunteer, One Young World Nepal Ambassador and served Rotaract as president of a local Rotaract Club. Through these experiences, she developed strong leadership, coordination skills and working in diverse culture. Nilima enjoys working with young people to empower them and has a strong passion for youth development and women empowerment.

Host Organization: Making Cents International

Role at Host Organization: Nilima will support the YouthPower.org learning hub and YouthPower Learning webinar series, which provides a learning platform that strengthens the positive youth development field across all sectors (Health, Education, Economics, etc). Additionally, she will participate in the planning of the annual YP meeting and contribute to social media outreach.

Subecha Dahal is a Master’s in Public Health candidate (2019) at Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. From Kathmandu, Nepal, Subecha is a Dornsife Fellow and is currently supporting Unicef supported project to develop a global framework to measure & evaluate social norms changes in female genital mutilation. Previous to this, Subecha was working as a project coordinator with VaxTrac, a global health non-profit in Washington D.C., where she first served as an Atlas Corps Fellow. At VaxTrac, Subecha supported the coordination of vaccine related mHealth projects that were implemented in partnership with Unicef, WHO and CDC. As an Atlas Corps Alumni, Subecha is a part of a diverse group of emerging nonprofit young leaders from all over the world. Subecha completed her graduate degree in sociology from Pune University in India, where she also completed her undergraduate studies. Through her work in public health, Subecha hopes to address existing health disparities.

Host Organization : VaxTrac

Samita has a strong background in research, writing, and communications. Samita has previously assisted the communications and marketing teams of TechChange, a social enterprise providing online courses for international development professionals. Prior to TechChange, she worked at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants where she communicated with 33 affiliate agencies around the U.S. and was responsible for an online training to ensure compliance-based refugee resettlement. Samita earned a Bachelor’s degree in History from Goshen College in Indiana, and as a senior in college she initiated a semester-long internship with the local office of the Mennonite Central Committee, a relief and development organization. There, she researched and reviewed documents for a training for U.S. immigration advocates. Before starting college, she volunteered as a teaching assistant in an international school in Nepal. Samita is passionate about assisting in the development of Nepal, especially in the education sector. She is especially interested in the empowerment of women through education.

Host Organization: TechChange

Role at Host Organization: Samita will communicate with TechChange’s domestic and international clients on a daily basis as well as manage TechChange’s social media accounts. She will create marketing campaigns for TechChange’s courses and approach new partnership opportunities.

Narayan has eight years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from Tribhuwan University. Narayan is currently working on the Accountability Lab Nepal project, which has been operational through the Nepal Economic Forum (NEA). As a Nepal Country Representative for the Accountability Lab, he led the development of several innovative tools for accountability, including: a Right To Information Tool Kit for investigative journalists; ‘Bolaun, an online network for Nepalese to resolve accountability issues; and Nalibeli, a wiki-tools website to crowd-source information on higher education and public services in Nepal. He is a founding member of the South Asia Representative for Global Youth Anti-Corruption Network (GYAC). Narayan also founded the social activism group Citizen Action, and served as Executive Director for Youth Initiative, in Nepal. While working for Handicap International, he developed a national strategy for sustainable service delivery for people with disabilities. He also represented the World Bank Institute (WBI) as Youth Ambassador in an international anti-corruption conference, and was a co-winner of the 2012 Global Changemakers Community Action Project for the BUJORN initiatives to promote youth participation in anti-corruption across education, health and local governance in Bulgaria, Jordan, and Nepal. He played a key role in mobilizing youth across sectors to campaign for the National Youth Policy, youth participation in the Constituent Assembly Election, and continued dialogue to promote youth issues in the constitution of Nepal. Through these experiences and many additional conferences and training sessions, Narayan developed strong leadership skills, extensive knowledge of anti-corruption and youth issues, and the ability to effectively advocate on a national and international level. He is passionate about working with young people and civil society to create social change.

Host Organization : Accountability Lab

Role at Host Organization: Narayan Adhikari will provide wide-ranging support to the Accountability Lab’s organizational development, internal operations, program management, and outreach from its main office in Washington DC. He will specifically assist with research, blogging, financial management, grant writing, and social media.

Medha has eight years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Master’s in Public Health from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Women’s Studies from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. She is currently working as Capacity Development Specialist for a USAID funded program ‘Health for Life Logistics’ in Nepal. She is also the Vice President of a youth-run and led organization named YUWA in Nepal. She has worked as Program Coordinator of YUWA in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of young people and women, where she led a team of young people to advocate for comprehensive sexuality education, capacity building of young girls to combat sexual violence, and capacity building of young key population of HIV and AIDS. She represented Asia and the Pacific in the New Generation Leadership Strategy of UNAIDS. Medha worked as an intern in the Monitoring and Evaluation unit of Nepal government’s National Centre for AIDS and STD Control where she specialized on data management and reporting. Medha has developed strong skills on grant development, program implementation, team management, and advocacy. She has published several articles and blogs on national newspapers on women and gender issues, youth issues, and sexual reproductive health issues. Her college gave Medha the titles of ‘Miss Fresher’, ‘Miss Nobel’, and ‘Leadership Award’ for her excellent academics and extra curricular performance at college. She aims to emerge as a professional on the issue of women and adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Host Organization: Nike Foundation

Role at Host Organization: Medha will help the Nike Foundation use its Investment Fund intelligently to take the Girl Effect to scale. She will help manage a portfolio of grant relationships that deliver maximize return on investment, capture and distill learning, and inspire large-scale initiatives for girls

Sushmita has more than five years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and holds a Master’s of Science in Microbiology from Bangalore University, India. While working as a Program Coordinator at Media Advocacy Group in Kathmandu, she coordinated several projects on gender equality in the media, safe migration, women’s empowerment, civic education and right to information. Along with this, she managed overall programmatic and organizational activities including internal staff, donor reporting, event management and grant writing. Previously, Sushmita has worked in READ Nepal that builds Community Library and Resource Centers (CLRCs) to bring rural prosperity through education, social and economic empowerment, for three and half years. In READ, she gained communication and marketing experience along with project planning and implementation skills. Moreover, she got the opportunity to learn community engagement and community mobilization through direct interaction with women and marginalized community. Besides, she was engaged in short term hand washing project funded by UNICEF in several schools of Kathmandu. Over the years, she has managed programs for different donors including UN Women, UNDP, South Asia Women’s Fund, USAID and FHI 360. Through these experiences, she has developed strong skills in policy advocacy, community mobilization, capacity building, partnership development, donor communication, event management, and media engagement. She enjoys working with diverse communities and has a strong passion for working for the rights of the socially excluded to bring positive social transformation in society.

Host Organization: Internews

Role at Host Organization: Sushmita will report directly to the Vice President of Global Technology, providing assistance on a broad range of matters ranging from events coordination to strategic planning and communications. She will also provide direct assistance in implementing Internet freedom and digital security programs.