Meet The Team
EYE NEPAL TRUSTEES
All the trustees associated with EYE Nepal work on an entirely voluntary basis in the UK and concentrate all the funds raised to directly supporting the various projects in Nepal. Over a number of years, the trustees have built a strong reputation in Nepal for their services to early years education and have established relationships with the municipalities in which EYE Nepal operates.
Mike Smith
CHAIRMAN
Mike has enjoyed a long successful career in the hospitality industry. Formerly Managing Director of BaxterStorey, the largest independent FoodService business in the UK, more recently Mike was Chairman of Oakman Inns & Restaurants from 2009 until 2020. Oakman Inns is an independent hotel, pub and restaurant business with 30 plus locations mainly across the South of England and enjoys huge critical and financial success. Mike first became involved with early years education in Nepal in 2014 following a charity trek he undertook with a number of other hospitality executives. He has since returned to Nepal every year and takes a keen operational interest in all the schools supported by EYE Nepal. As well as his strategic, commercial and entrepreneurial knowledge, Mike brings an infectious enthusiasm and passion to the organisation.
Debra Adams
TREASURER
Debra Adams is based in the South of England and qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA) in the 1990’s. Her early career was spent training and working in finance roles with an international hotel group followed by 11 years working as an academic in higher education. She now runs her own consultancy focusing on education and learning for middle to senior managers in the hospitality industry.
Debra first visited Nepal in 2014 when she took part in a charity trek and community project for the UK based charity Springboard. This was a life changing experience and ignited her love for the Nepalese culture and people. She has since made several further visits and is passionate about creating equal opportunity for young people to access education based on sustainable solutions.
Nick
Howe
FUNDRAISING
Nick co-founded the contract catering business Holroyd Howe Ltd in 1997. Holroyd Howe now has a turnover of £100m with 2,800 employees. Nick’s accolades include; Contract Caterer of the Year, Catey Award Winner & Sunday Times Top 100 Business to Work For two years running. Nick has dedicated his entire career to the sector helping to make Holroyd Howe the leading organisation in the independent schools market. Nick’s life and business principles focus on fairness, opportunity and a desire to create the best. His fierce determination and commitment have helped Holroyd Howe achieve an unrivalled reputation as an employer with style, one that leads with initiatives and that has a strong internal culture of inclusiveness and integrity. Nick has previously been a Board member and Trustee of People 1st and is now a Trustee of EYE Nepal. Travelling the world has always been a life ambition for Nick and his sponsored participation of a group trip to Nepal in October 2018 has encouraged Nick to committing himself to work further for this wonderful and hugely valuable cause.
Kaye Mathew
MARKETING
Based in the North-West of England, Kaye Mathew has been the Marketing Director of the renown Northcote Hotel & Restaurant for many years. In 2018 Kaye helped to raise over £50k for early years school projects with a group of hospitality colleagues on a trekking and volunteering trip in Nepal. She brings her vast experience of event management and marketing to the EYE Nepal team and is vital to our fund raising and promotional activities.
Raju Bishowkarma
COUNTRY DIRECTOR
Raju initially worked with World Education on the Bandipur Project teaching at public school Bhanu Secondary School. He developed approaches to ensure greater learning outcomes for disadvantaged Dalit students. He helped design the program and setup Learning Centres in the community using peer educators to help students do homework and extra-curricular activities to enrich their reading skill and learning outcomes. He started his teaching career from the missionary school Notre Dame in his hometown Bandipur from where he was graduated. During his eight years of teaching tenure, Raju witnessed many gaps in public schools which motivated him to continue his services to promote quality education in public schools gaining experiences of one and half decade.
Shiva Kumar Acharya
PART TIME LIAISON OFFICER
Shiva lives and works in Sankhu town. He is a full-time government teacher having recently completed his Masters in English studies. The UK EYE Nepal Trustees first met Shiva in 2014 at Shree Mahendra Primary School in Sankhu whilst they were engaged in some community projects. Since that first meeting, Shiva has remained in contact with the EYE Nepal Trustees and assists with various projects liaising with the municipality, school and the community team.
Dipak Bishowkarma
LEARNING MOTIVATOR IN BANDIPUR
Dipak is a resident of Bandipur-2, Tanahun. He is our new team member joining us to supervise and assist our supported schools in the Bandipur Rural Municipality. He works with teachers and students to ensure the children's learning is progressing. Dipak is keen to ensure that every child reaches their full potential through learning activities. His two-year teaching experience in a private school has been an asset to achieve his dream of working with EYE Nepal.
Sonam Kunwar
LEARNING MOTIVATOR/FACILITATOR
KHAHARE LEARNING CENTER
Sonam is a local resident of Khahare village in the Bandipur Rural Municipality where EYE Nepal opened a community learning centre in April 2023. In addition to managing the centre, Sonam is
pursuing his Master's level of studies in Management. Sonam loves to support the children of the village and he opens the centre in the morning and evening time when he is available to help higher-grade children with Maths and Science subjects. Sonam is a valued member of our team and tells us "It is my great privilege to help my village children in their studies".
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Sangita BK
LEARNING MOTIVATOR/FACILITATOR
BOTETAR LEARNING CENTER
Sangita lives in the remote rural village of Botetar in the Bandipur region where EYE Nepal has funded the refurbishment and support for a Learning Centre for out of school activities. The Botetar Centre opened in October 2022 and now provides after school learning opportunities for over 40 children from the village.
Sangita takes responsibility for managing the center and the children who use it. She helps the children in their reading and writing activities. She is pursuing her own bachelor level studies in education faculty whilst taking care of her young daughter whilst her husband is serving in the Nepal Army. She is enjoying her time in helping the children in their studies. She proudly says, "5 students who regularly attend the centre for extracurricular studies have come in the first, second and third position in their final school results."
Kalpana Bishowkarma
Kalpana is our newest team member in Nepal. Based in Kathmandu, she visits schools to motivate and encourage the primary children with their reading and writing skills. During her visits to the schools in the Sankhu district, Kalpana focuses on the continued progress of each child by monitoring their completion of the EYE Nepal handwriting programme.
Rajiv Lal Shrestha
Rajiv is a local resident of Vyas Municipality, Damauli Bazaar in the Tanahun district. He is our newly recruited Liaison Officer and Motivator. He supervises, motivates, and monitors the activities in the learning centres and schools supported by EYE Nepal. He also liaises with the local municipality office to ensure that each school is fully supported. He has a keen interest in community development through educational activities.
Arati BK
We are delighted to welcome Arati BK as Learning Motivator to support the Khahare Learning Centre located in a small rural village in the Bandipur region. This centre, opened in 2023 with the support of donors from Island Youth Projects, supports over 30 students daily who use the centre to complete their after-school studies by attending both before and after school. Arati joins us whilst studying for her bachelor’s degree in teaching – she hopes to further her career in a government school on graduation.
Bijay Shrestha
We are so pleased to welcome Bijay Shrestha to the EYE Nepal team in the role of Field Motivator in the Sankhu District.​ Bijay is a local resident of Sankhu town in the Shankharapur Municipality which means that he is ideally located to provide support and to monitor our education activities in the 11 schools in the region with EYE Nepal early years classrooms. Bijay is married with young children and in his spare time has an interest in singing and writing lyrics.