Meet the Team
Rosha Pokharel
President, Founding Member
Rosha Pokharel is passionate about bringing social changes by encouraging collective effort of individuals in society. Out of many causes she stands with, her mission to eradicate child sexual abuse via education and awareness lies at the center.
Professionally, she is a Data Scientist and holds Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Florida. She believes that data and technology can contribute significantly for drawing actionable insights to help in awareness and abolition of child sexual abuse in our communities, especially when merged with domains like social work, child education, child health, child psychotherapy and child rights laws. She aspires to make these the pillars to embolden TSHK to fight against child sexual abuse. She believes that change can only come from the positive outlook to a problem, and that even an individual with the right mindset holds the power to drive these changes.
She finds best use of her time to be working selflessly for community upliftment. She is currently serving as Executive Board Member for Nepal Brain Gain Initiative. In the past, she has served as Vice President, for Nepalese Student Association, University of Florida, and Executing Board Member for Nepalese American Friendship Association, Madison, WI.
She believes that poems are the most concise, yet powerful form of expression and touches up on social aspects in her poems. Born in the USA and brought up in Nepal, she currently lives with her husband and two children in the USA.
Archana Dhakhwa
Vice President,
Founding Member
Archana Dhakhwa believes Humanity to be the only race and only religion. With over 30 years of experience in national and international non-profit organizations, she has initiated several local programs to engage, encourage and bond the literary population, senior members, and children and youths of the community. To name a few, she has launched Kathmandu Municipality’s Clean City Pilot Project in Kathmandu, Nepal, served as the Secretary of World Education Nepal that focused mainly on developing adult and out-of-school girls education program, served as Executive Board Member of Nepalese American Friendship Association (NAFA) of Wisconsin, where she was extensively involved in organizing programs to promote the identification of the Nepalese Community in the State and raising cultural and lingual awareness among the community members. With her vast knowledge and experience in the area of publication, accounting and budgeting, she has worked in several international projects and traveled extensively for the field level rural and international experience.
She holds the degree in Mathematics, Economic and Computer Science. By profession, she works in the field of Information Technology.
Born and brought up in Nepal, she currently lives with her husband and two children in the USA.
Srijana Paudel
Secretary
,
Founding Member
Srijana is a firm advocate of saving children from abuse, as they are the most vulnerable and susceptible ones. She believes change can only come by addressing this as a problem, and feels very strongly that child sexual abuse can be prevented by raising awareness. She is a keen contributor towards building a society free of stigma, where the children and caretakers or parents can have open conversations about rights and safety of children. In doing so, she has actively volunteered at events organized by Bereaved Parents of Madison, Wisconsin, Rainbow Pregnancies of Madison, Wisconsin, Mikalye’s Grace, etc. As a parent of three, she is passionate about creating a safer environment for the kids and is committed to the mission and vision of TSHK.
She holds an MS degree in Computer Science from the University of Nevada. Professionally, she works as System Analyst with the Department of Health Services, State of Wisconsin. Born and brought up in Nepal, she currently lives with her husband and children in the USA.
Nikita Mishra
Treasurer
,
Founding Member
Nikita Mishra cares deeply about children's well being and safe growing environment and is fully committed to the mission and vision of TSHK. She has been contributing to her community selflessly over years by volunteering in various community programs such as, Meals on the Wheels Program in Wisconsin, United Tribal College as tutor and in Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library in North Dakota. She is also a very dedicated teacher of Kakshya, a weekly Nepali Language Class conducted in Madison, Wisconsin to teach kids about Nepali language, culture and heritage. She is also a member of Diversity Advisory Council (2019-2021) at Wisconsin Department of Revenue and an active volunteer of DOR’s Adopt a School Pen Pal Program.
She holds a Masters Degree in Software Engineering from University of North Dakota and works as a Software Developer at Wisconsin Department of Revenue
She is passionate about dancing and reading. Originally from Kathmandu, Nepal Nikita currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband and two kids.
Bindiya Jha
Executive Board Member
,
Founding Member
Bindiya Jha believes in language access and equity. She is a community-based healthcare administrator, an advocate, and an educator with a focus on healthcare interpreting. She is actively involved with the Bhutanese refugee population in Massachusetts. She is a freelance CCHI certified Medical Interpreter and a Certified Court Interpreter in Nepali.
Bindiya has worked in refugee resettlement from 2007 to 2013 and has extensive experience in immigration law. Since 2013, she has worked at Caregiver Homes and provided operational support to Adult Foster Care programs along with online digital care coaching for Nepali speaking caregivers.
She has a Masters Degree in International Development and Social Change from Clark University. At present she holds a position of Program Director, Interpreter Education at Found in Translation. In this role, she is responsible for interpreting program designs, implementation, mentoring new trainers and providing continuing education opportunities for trained interpreters. She is also a trainer for Nepali medical interpreter students in various platforms across the state of MA. In all her roles, she has been a passionate advocate for languages of lesser diffusion like Nepali and promotes language access for essential community services.
Bindu Timilsina
Executive Board Member
,
Founding Member
Bindu Timilsina believes that we can prevent our children from being sexually abused through proper education and awareness. She thinks a bigger paradigm shift starts at home through conscious parenting, initiated with creating a culture of mutual respect irrespective of gender and believes that child raised self-aware and empowered will pave a path to build a responsible society where each child will get an opportunity to grow and learn free from a threat of sexual abuse. These beliefs of her align with the mission and vision of THSK and are the driving force for her to be a part of this organization.
She holds an MS degree in Health Physics from Idaho State University and a certification from the Board of Laser Safety. She currently works as a Radiation and Laser Safety Specialist at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
While not at work, Bindu loves doing household chores, playing with her kids, shuffling in her garden, and experimenting with new cuisines in her kitchen. She lives with her husband and children in the USA.
Kalpana Rizal
Executive Board Member
,
Founding Member
Kalpana Rizal has a strong passion for helping the underserved and voiceless. Having been a refugee from Bhutan, who had to file political asylum upon arrival to America in 2005, she strongly advocates for women and children rights in South-East Asian communities. Kalpana Rizal has served as an Executive Director of Bhutanese Women and Youth Empowerment Program, which was founded to help refugee women and children in Eastern Nepal. She has also been working for the Early Head Start program in Madison, Wisconsin since 2013. She was employed as a Program coordinator for SEWA-IFWA in the Twin Cities and worked as a case manager for CAPI USA in Minnesota.
With her active service as social worker for refugee women and children in her community, she has been awarded Emerging Youth Leader Award (2002) from the Youth International Network in Baltimore and for her positivity and amazing work ethic she has been awarded Sunshine Award from Dane County Parent Council in Madison. As a passionate advocate for women, she has presented a paper on women’s issues in 2005 at the International Women Conference at the United Nations in New York City.
Kalpana Rizal holds a degree in social work with an additional certification in infant and family mental health from UW-Madison. Her hobbies include cooking, hiking and traveling. She is married, has two daughters and currently lives in the USA with her family.
Kripa Tiwari
Executive Board Member
,
Founding Member
Kripa strongly believes that empowerment via awareness is the key to eradicating all forms of injustices. Teaching the kids, providing easy to understand materials, providing a safe environment for them to express and equipping the parents and teachers with knowledge and means is the key to making an aware community. Her belief comes from her experience with various ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) for development projects while working in Nepal at Equal Access International. She also serves on the team of the planning committee of Nepali Pathshala (Nepali School) of Maryland , USA. Prior to this she was on the Executive Board of Nepalese American Friendship Association (NAFA) of Wisconsin. With both of these roles, she has been involved in instilling in the kids the concepts of multiculturalism and unity within diversity, promoting self-acceptance and helping them develop unbiasedness for people across different backgrounds.
She holds an MS degree in Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire. Professionally, she works as Product Owner for developing software solutions at Total Administrative Services Corporation, Madison, Wisconsin, USA. She is also a member of Women United group at her workplace and involved in organizing various activities.
Born and raised in Nepal, she currently lives with her husband and two children in the USA.
Kusum Tamang
Ex
ecutive Board Member
,
Founding Member
Kusum has an avid passion to serve the community that are marginalised and/or less empowered and has been involved in the Social Sector since 13 years in Australia, India and Nepal to serve her passion. Having worked in the community sector for years, she firmly believes in building sustainable yet simple mechanisms of empowering communities and putting education and awareness in the first priority to mitigate most social challenges. This belief has led her to lead workshops and surveys for TSHK in Nepal alongside other professionals and with the guidance of the extremely dedicated and supportive team members at TSHK.
Kusum holds a degree in Community Welfare work and Buddhist Theology and is now undertaking an MBA degree. She now heads Hiteri Foundation which is Nepal’s first non-profit crowdfunding platform and an emerging crisis management organisation that also works in training civil society organisations on communication, capacity building and fundraising.
In her free time, Kusum loves to volunteer for different causes, read, work decorate with plants, spend time with her husband, family and her two dogs.
Puspa Pokharel
Executive Board Member
,
Founding Member
Puspa Pokharel has unconditionally and passionately worked in the area of human rights with the firm belief that human rights activism, even from one’s personal level, makes a huge difference in the lives of people. Working as a Human Rights Lawyer, she has been actively involved in the field of human rights since 2010 when she started working for Informal Sector Service Centre, one of the prominent human rights organizations in Nepal. Pursuing her passion, in 2012 she graduated with honors in Master of Laws on International Human Rights from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Chicago, USA.
Puspa has closely worked with the National Human Rights Commission in Nepal in the field of juvenile justice system and considers reaching out to the vulnerable ones via human rights activism without their expectation, as one of the greatest achievements of her life.
She is the Director of National Law College, Nepal. She is also the Director of Civil Law and Human Rights Research Centre. She reforms policies as well as runs advocacy programs, campaigns, community outreach programs, research projects especially targeting vulnerable groups like children and women. She is also an academician in the field of International Human Rights at several educational institutions in Nepal. She teaches human rights to the law students, foreign ministry officials and armed police forces in Nepal.
In her free time, she loves spending time with her twins. She lives with her children, husband and family in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Rachna Tiwari
Executive Board Member
,
Founding Member
Rachna Tiwari grew up hearing and believing the phrase “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible by Audrey Hepburn”. Being a family physician, she is familiar with the effects of child sexual abuse throughout ones life. She believes that the only way to uproot this problem is through education and timely intervention. She understands how deeply rooted this problem is and how much we can do to make it better. The true magnitude is hidden as the topic is very sensitive and is largely unspoken of. Although it is true that prevention is better than cure, kids who have these adverse childhood experiences should also have proper medical care and support systems. Her mission to provide such care coincides with the mission and vision of TSHK.
She is a Physician by profession and currently works as a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is also a board member of the Nepali American Friendship Association (NAFA) - a nonprofit organization, where she volunteers at different community events to promote the culture of Nepal.
When not working, she loves spending time with her husband and my two girls. She loves to sing, dance, cook, and hike. Originally from Kathmandu, Nepal, she currently lives in the USA with her children and husband.
Sabina Dhungana
Executive Board Member
,
Founding Member
Sabina Dhungana deeply cares, supports and encourages the need for a safe environment for ultimate growth and development of children. She firmly believes, supports, and is committed to THSK’s mission and vision. With the care for instilling in kids the concepts of multiculturalism, unity within diversity and self-awareness to see through biases, She has been volunteering as a teacher in Kakshya, a weekly Nepali language class conducted in Madison by Nepalese American Friendship Association (NAFA). With her passion to serve the Nepalese community in Madison, she has also been serving as an Executive Board Member of NAFA.
She holds an MS degree in Forest Science from West Virginia University and B.Sc in Forest Science from Trivubhan University in Nepal. Forester by profession, she currently works for Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as a Forest Products Specialist. She has led many state and federal policies to promote wood products and forestry in the state of Wisconsin.
In her free time, she loves spending time with her family. She lives with her two children and husband in the USA.