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!

Barbarah White

Ginger Colton - CoFounder, Board Secretary

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.

Emily graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2008 with a BS Accounting degree. She served as the president of the Marians Service Organization during her college career, an organization whose main focus is service to women and children. Following college, she took a position as an associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she worked in non-public tax and audit. After three years at PwC, she joined the non-for-profit field as a senior accountant with Green Dot Public Schools, a charter school district in Los Angeles. She quickly moved up to become the Special Program and Accountability Specialist.

After over three years with Green Dot Public Schools, Emily transferred to Northern California with her husband in May of 2014. She took a temporary position helping to open the East Bay Innovation Charter School in Oakland. Once the school was up and running, she accepted a permanent position at Kaiser Permanente as a project manager working with IT Compliance metrics and reporting within the healthcare industry.