Rachana Karki has been Sunsar Maya’s mental health therapist since 2018. Rachana holds a MS in Psychiatric Nursing, is an Associate Professor at Asian College for Advance Studies, and an Advisory Board Member of the School Nurse Network-Nepal. Rachana brings years of experience and uses a wide range of therapies in caring for our students and families. Rachana is also an experienced trainer and provides ongoing trainings to our staff and teachers in how best to support students’ emotional and mental health.

Chanda Sunuwar started working as a teacher at Sunsar Maya in April, 2021. She has been in a post where she relishes sharing knowledge and instructing students. Her previous work experience as Teacher in a Private school has helped her add more enthusiasm and mastery at her mentorship. Her motivation is her students and she loves doing her job.

Liza Rai is a social work student in her second year of BA. She initially joined Sunsar Maya as an intern. However, after working there for a while she felt connected with the students and the environment. She felt at home where all the colleagues were very welcoming and helpful towards each other. Liza now works as a Part time Teacher and feels grateful and more fulfilled towards life. Her philosophy in life is to give as much as is received, therefore she loves sharing the knowledge she has received.

Elesha Mavrommatis is an experienced non-profit fundraising professional with broad-based development experience. As the Development Director for Sunsar Maya, Elesha is responsible for creating and implementing the overall fund development strategy, with a focus on individual giving and grant related opportunities. Prior to joining Sunsar Maya, Elesha was a frontline fundraiser for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta where she established their Women’s Leadership giving program before leading fundraising efforts for the organization’s “safety-net” hospital, Children's at Hughes Spalding.

Reshma Shrestha is a full time teacher at Sunsar Maya working to bring significant changes in the lives of vulnerable kids and women. She is happiest when sharing her creative side with her students. She wants to be a role model and continue to work for those kids and women. She enjoys listening to audio novels, dancing and reading books .

Ranjita Shrestha, a passionate teacher, has been with the organization since 2017. She genuinely enjoys working with young learners. Helping each child progress academically, socially, and linguistically is a daily challenge that she is honored to accept. She strives to cultivate a learning community that fosters this development in a positive, enjoyable atmosphere. She has been acknowledged as “Teacher of the Month” three times during her current work assistance. She also co-owns a home-based business.

Ranjana Rai, B.Ed student works as a full time Teacher at Sunsar Maya. She strongly believes that each student should be given the opportunity to grow and succeed in a caring, safe and challenging environment. She has teaching experience in government schools of Nepal and that gives her more confidence in her work. Besides her work, she enjoys traveling. She wants to experience new places and expand her horizons.

Nisha Sharma is the Head Teacher of Sunsar Maya’s Mahalaxmi location, and acting Program Manager for Sunsar Maya. Nisha has been a keen learning enthusiast her entire life, and has a wealth of experience within Nepal’s education sector, where she has worked with children and teachers from rural schools throughout Nepal. Prior to her work with Sunsar Maya, Nisha worked as a Teacher Trainer for the Indian Franchise Company, where she developed skills in teaching with arts and technology, particularly through curriculum design, development, and refinement, which has been a major boon for Sunsar Maya’s STEAM-focused teaching. While working with the Indian Franchise Company, Nisha was also responsible for training teachers and other stakeholders in a number of private and governmental schools in Nepal.

Nisha also worked as a Communicative English and Life Skills facilitator, where she helped students develop “soft” and socio-emotional skills in order to enhance their learning capacity and experience. She carries this understanding of teamwork, coordination, and ethics into her work as a Head Teacher with Sunsar Maya.

Nirmala Tamang , a student on a trail for her bachelor’s degree specializes in educating young ones on using progressive systems and applications including crafting, STEAM, singing, and communication. She uses her positive attitude and believes in words of love and encourages others to work hard and succeed. Nirmala is inspired daily by her co-workers and looks forward to being a child psychologist. She enjoys her time in SuMa and she’s happy to be a part of the family.

Neha Maharjan, a BBS student is a teacher at Sunsar Maya working to make an impact on the lives of disadvantaged children and women. She works in Sunsar Maya to continue learning and infuse knowledge on students respecting their dignity and worth with kindness and compassion. She started her journey at Sunsar Maya as an intern and part-time teacher where she worked with early teenagers. Now, being able to work as a full time teacher, her journey has set a path to work for kids and women to make a substantial impact on their lives and put a huge smile on their face. As a teacher, her areas of focus are acceptance, confidentiality, self determination and non judgmental attitude. Furthermore, she loves getting along with her colleagues to build a bond within the circle accompanied by making the office environment joyful.

Jyoti Rai is a part time teacher at Sunsar Maya who believes in teaching from the heart. Teaching has helped her learn so much about her creative potential that she didn’t know existed. Now, it comes very handy for her to set up her classroom and work passionately for her students. Layered by a love for music and mentally stimulating activities, she strives to share her knowledge that she has gained from her few years of her teaching practice experiences in government schools of Nepal.

Being a caretaker is one of the most important tasks, it is a labor of love. Bal has been working as a Caretaker with Sunsar Maya since 2017. She enjoys her work and shares her love with everyone through her work. She hails from the remote Far Western village of Nepal. She has faced many ups and downs in her teenage years. She dropped out of school when she was in grade 8, and got married at an early age. With two small kids, she came to Kathmandu in search of work. However, as a single mother it was not easy to look after and meet the needs of her children. A SuMa literacy student met her and brought her to the Sunsar Maya office where she was hired as a caretaker.

Nisha Sitaula has been working with Sunsar Maya since 2015. She has been enjoying her work as a teacher ever since. The changes in herself and the results achieved motivates her to continue working for better. She believes her greatest accomplishment until now is spending time with children and receiving unconditional love and respect from them.

Manusha Rai has been working with the organization since 2020 as a headteacher. She genuinely enjoys working with both young minds and adult women. She attempts to express various ideas with new techniques, and treats children as special individuals with tremendous worth. Besides, she wishes to devote time and energy to their academics ensuring their bright future.

Manisha Sherpa, the name that will always be known for the transformation from a student to teacher in Sunsar Maya. Having known every kind of struggle for a better education, she herself plans on educating the young. She loves to dance, draw, read and paint. She looks forward to growing more, drilling her self-skill and passing on to young souls.

Manisha is a passionate learner and believes in imparting a great deal of knowledge she has. She has been pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Business studies. She works as a Teacher at Sunsar Maya and feels proud to be a mentor to such lovely kids and women. To boost her profile, she took a teaching class before joining the organizaiton so that she could use her knowledge and understanding to the fullest. She is now actively enjoying what she always dreamt of.

Kabita Sunuwa desires to set an example of women empowerment through literacy class & also has her heart set to instruct kids for their bright & kind future. A fiery teacher as she likes to call herself believes in honing herself with new skills everyday possible. The eagerness of her students to learn new things & the million dollar smile on their face encourages her to work even harder. The accomplishment that she achieved during her ongoing work tenure is not an award but the professionalism, teamwork & gratitude.

Durga Bastakoti has been working with the organization since 2017, she is very kind and compassionate towards her work. She never fails to impress all of us with her work. She treats Suma’s children as her own children, she cooks with love and shares with love. She hails from a village near Kathmandu. She dropped out of school in class 10, but she never lost hope of moving ahead in life. She not only cares about everyone in the office, but she cares about everything in the office. We look forward to more years with her!

Sweta Pokharel holds a BA in Social Work and an MA in Food and Nutrition from Padmakanya Multiple Campus in Nepal. Sweta has worked and volunteered with multiple Nepalese NGOs, which has given her detailed knowledge of different regions of Nepal. Her efforts in this area focused on a nationwide girl’s education campaign, which worked to reduce the pervasive effects of uterine prolapse in both rural and urban parts of the country.

Sweta serves multiple roles within the organization, including daily operations, management of finances, securing partnerships with other organizations, and working to expand the organization’s services to additional disadvantaged women and children in our communities. She has also spearheaded a cervical health screening program to reduce women’s health issues and help women and girls stay in school.

Jehan Seirafi is a non-profit professional with extensive program and project manager experience and a focus on international development and human rights. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of Sunsar Maya, she works to create holistic programs that enable disadvantaged women and children in Nepal to build their own pathways out of poverty.

Jehan has served various organizations committed to international aid, human rights, and fighting human trafficking. Most recently, she served as the Program and Development Manager for the human rights organization, United for Iran; built an international network that provided educational and medical relief to underdeveloped areas as Program Director for Volunteer Nepal; and sat as the Advocacy Officer of the Advocacy Committee/California Committee North of Human Rights Watch.