 OUR LEADERSHIP 
LOCAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
Subhash Ghimire - Founder and Executive Chairman
Subhash is the founder and executive chairman of the Sarswati Foundation. After having spent four months in helping war affected kids in Arupokhari, a remote village in western Nepal, he started the foundation to further the cause and help war affected kids attend school. He worked with Today’s Youth Asia, a youth-led organization in Kathmandu Nepal from 2003-2006 and started school representative media training for school students in 2003, which is now running successfully in its seventh year. Subhash brings to the Sarswati Foundation a replicable model of community development through youth involvement. Subhash won the Clinton Global Initiative Outstanding Commitment Award in 2010 to build the first peace school in Arupokhari, Nepal. He is also the founder of Sarswati Peace School. Subhash won the prestigious Davis Projects for Peace grant of $10,000 to carry out a summer camp for war-affected children in Arupokhari, a remote village in western Nepal in 2009. He also established a library with more than 1,600 books and two computers in Darbar Secondary School in Arupokhari where he started his education. Subhash is graduated from St. Olaf College in Minnesota, USA in May 2010. He also writes on south Asian issues for the Huffington Post. He is also a senior fellow at Humanity in Action (HIA) and was part of the Berlin 2010 HIA SUmmer Fellowship Program.Subhash aspires to catalyze youth-led movements in education, health, democracy and human rights issues in Nepal.
Sabi Gurung - Director of Public Relations and Finance
Studying medicine for the past four years in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sabi Gurung joined the Sarswati Foundation team as Director of Public Relations – Nepal in April 2010. Although her focus is on the national health issues that continue to plague rural Nepal, Sabi continues to dedicate hours of her time connecting organizations and individuals from Kathmandu and Pokhara to the Sarswati Foundation. Sabi sees many of Nepal’s health issues stemming from inadequacies in rural education, which has brought her to the forefront of Sarswati Peace School project. Beyond her studies and work with the foundation, Sabi
expresses her deep interest to help the most unfortunate as a contributor to a
variety of national level health camps over the past four years.
Busan PKD
Prassain - Director of Public Relations
Busan
was also the key member in making Davis
Projects for Peace: Fulbari Summer Camp in Arupokhari Nepal a grand
success. HE
brings to the Sarswati Foundation wealth of knowledge and experiences in
media
and public relations. He will help the foundation in developing and
maintaining
good relations with media and donor organizations.
Busan
completed
his undergraduate
degrees in Psychology, English and Journalism) from Tribhuwan University
(T.U.), Nepal.
Currently, he is pursuing his graduate studies in Psychology (Clinical),
Economics and Criminology
& Police Administration.
Busan
has
demonstrated distinctive leadership traits right from high school. He
published his first book ‘Pahilo Pailo’, an anthology of poems, at the
age of
15. Busan
got an early exposure at the national level when he was awarded the
prestigious
‘Bir GaneshMan Singh Child Prodigy Award’ (2002).
He has high hope and faith on his
generation and aspires to
augment integrated youth movement in Nepal.
INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TEAM:
Nicholas
Kang - Director of Project Development
As an advocate for
youth-catalyzed peace, Nicholas Kang
displayed no hesitation when asked to be a founding director of the
Sarswati
Foundation in Summer 2009.
Currently studying at St. Olaf College, majoring in both Biology
and
Social Innovation & Community Development (a major that he has
created for
himself and the college), Nicholas has dedicated many hours to develop
the
branding and websites for the Sarswati Foundation, the Sarswati Peace
School,
and Teach For Nepal. Nicholas has also spent countless hours developing
the
Sarswati Foundations ideas into projects along side founder, Subhash
Ghimire.
In January 2011, Nicholas spent four weeks in Nepal
developing the administrative materials; teacher, staff, and student
handbooks;
and by-laws for the Sarswati Peace School. During his stay, he also
spoke to
the an audience of over 60 village members about the expectations that
the
Sarswati Foundation had of the community and oversaw the initial stages
of the
Sarswati Peace School construction.
In his spare time, Nicholas
also operates his own non-profit organization, the Smart Step Youth
Association, in rural western Canada. This organization allows
Nicholas to express his
passion to utilize youth energy and potential to achieve societal
harmony.
Erin Carson
Erin Carson has been teaching at Century Middle School in Minnesota for 9 years now. Her passion in life is traveling around the world with her family to experience all the beautiful people and places that we are surrounded by! Erin first visited Nepal during her time at St. Olaf College. She met Subhash at St. Olaf in 2009 and since then Erin has been integral part of the Sarswati Foundation and the peace school project. Erin’s works involve connecting with Northfield community, people and organization in the region and garner support for our projects here in Nepal. She is passionate about changing the fate of people that are in the bottom strata of our world community.
Peter Loizzo - Fundraising Coordinator - USA
Peter has been the Fundraising Coordinator - USA for the
Sarswati Foundation since Fall 2009.
His great friendship with Ghimire was the spark for Loizzo’s interest in
the foundation and ultimately led to his efforts fundraising for the Sarswati
Memorial Sponsor Child Scholarship Fund, which allows Nepalese boys and girls
to attend school in Arupokhari, Nepal.
He continues his efforts as the foundation pushes forward in their
development of various projects including the Sarswati Peace School, Sarswati
National Ideas Festival, Womens’ Literacy in Nepal, and hopefully many more.
Studying at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota he realized
a deep-seated interest in comparative politics and more specifically
transitional governments. He will
graduate from St. Olaf College in the spring of 2011 with his B.A. in both
English and Political Science, and hopes to someday achieve a Ph.D. in
comparative political science.
OUR ADVISORS
Renu Shah
After finishing
postgraduate studies in marketing
management, Renu moved to Nepal in 1996. A year later, she joined Nimbus
International working in importing and distributing confectionery and
biscuits
all over the country.
The same year, Renu, along with four friends,
sponsored five children to go to school. The children were randomly
chosen from
the streets and slums. They had never seen what a school actually looked
like
from inside. For next ten years, Renu just followed the performance of
these
children until the oldest child of the group finished his high school.
For the
first time, she saw a life transformed. It then became evident that the
child
who belonged to the slums was never going back there. He had a much
better life
ahead for him. And that gave power to my dreams.
In 2007, Renu gave up her work and
started Shikshantar School. The school is a quality-based institution
for
imparting education. At the same time, she also started running free
evening
school through “Shikshantar Outreach Program”. The children attending
the free
school were street children and others were working as domestic helpers
or as
waiters in small hotels and restaurants.
She believes that we have wasted so many generations
and it’s the time to “save this one”.
Ishwor Adhikari
A resident and ex-chairman of Arupokhari village, he is an icon for
Gorkha district itself. In the district, he is particularly known for
his selflessness, ability to stand up to the right thing, and straight
forwardness (which is something that is hard to see in the developing
communities of Nepal). He has represented Arupokhari and the surrounding
villages at both regional and national level. He has drafted budget
proposals for the village as well as presided over judicial affairs.
Between 1989 and 1991, he worked as social development assistant for
Save the Children USA, and helped to implement informal educational
programs in the village. During his public service career so far, he has
held numerous education and development related positions. He has
served as a board member in various schools and campuses, such as Gorkha
Multiple Campus, Dulav College, Durbar High School, and some others. He
was the president of a road project linking Arupokhari to another
village. He also worked as a local member of Human Rights and Peace
Society, Nepal Red Cross Society. He was the president of Arupokhari
Water Supply Project from 1994 to 1998. Currently, he is the president
of Chandeshwori Youth Club, Rural Community Electrification Project (for
Arupokhari), and chairman of District Reconciliation and Rehabilitation
Commission. He is also actively involved in promoting tourism, and
building an information center in the district. What Ishwor has done to
help communities is truly exceptional. He has truly made use of the
limited education opportunity that he received. He is a living legend
and a source of inspiration to anyone who wants to embark in public
service.
Rabilal Ghimire
Rabilal is a senior teacher at Durbar High School of Arupokhari village
in Gorkha. He has taught a variety of subjects for over twenty years at
school and his commitment to teaching remains completely unabated. As
one of the few educated people in the village back then, he decided to
join teaching with the goal of fighting ignorance and lack of awareness
that was so rampant. His passion to public service has only increased
over the period of two decades, and with so many interesting ideas that
he has for social change, he claims that he feels younger with each
passing day. Known for his diligence and sincerity amongst his
colleagues, he has inspired hundreds of village youths and their parents
to take up to education. He genuinely believes that education is the
one and only driver to social change and this has been manifest in his
approach public conduct. He has taken several initiatives at local and
district level (such as adult literacy project) to transform
communities. Even though he will be retiring as a teacher in the summer
of 2010, he will continue advocating for social change through
education. His experience of working in the public service will be
immensely valuable to Sarswati Foundation. More
importantly, it is the people like Ravi Lal, who have immersed
themselves in local communities and know the nitty-gritty of being a
part of it that can help us build connections and reach out to the most
unreachable communities. His experience of being a part of public
service will also be of tremendous importance to us. Prof. Kris McPherson
Prof. Jeanne Willcoxon
Jeanne Willcoxon graduated from Harvard University's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at the American Repertory Theatre and received both her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Theatre History and Theory. She currently teaches and directs in the Theatre Department at St. Olaf College. She has worked regionally and in New York City as an actor and has published work in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics and Theatre History Studies.
Prof. Kris Thalhammer
Dr.
Kris Thalhammer was the Chair of the Political Science Department in
2008, but is currently on sabbatical leave. She has a passion for
creating social change in developing countries around the world.
The Sarswati Foundation ® 2009 The Sarswati Foundation is a registered not-for-profit organization founded in Nepal. Web-design and graphics by Nicholas Kang (nicholaskang@sarswatifoundation.org).
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