Executive Director Member of Senior Management Team
Raghu Dhital is the Executive Director of BNMT Nepal. Raghu has worked in community based public health for twenty years, and has diverse experience across multiple sectors, including infectious disease control programmes, WASH and disaster response and recovery. Raghu oversees the activities of BNMT, directing the long-term strategic plan, developing new responsive projects, establishing and maintaining successful stakeholder relationships. He ensures the successful implementation of all the programs of the organization.
Dr Maxine Caws
Principal Investigator for IMPACT TB, LSTM/BNMT Nepal Member of Senior Management Team
Dr Maxine Caws is the Principal Investigator of IMPACT TB and a senior infectious diseases researcher at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK with over 20 years of experience in this field. She leads the multidisciplinary infectious diseases research programme which includes the optimization of community based active TB case finding strategies, drug resistance, molecular epidemiology of SARS-COV-2/TB, health economics and a pioneering drone transport network for rural healthcare. She has been based full time with Birat Nepal Medical Trust (BNMT) in Kathmandu since 2017.
Laxmi Prasad Dahal
Chief Finance Officer Member of Senior Management Team
Laxmi Prasad Dahal is Chief Finance Officer, working in BNMT since 2006. He has over 20 years of professional experience in finance, accounts, taxation, record keeping and audit. He is responsible for overseeing the finances and accounting operations, compliance with donor regulations and reporting requirements, financial planning and management of BNMT Nepal. Laxmi leads a team of five finance officers working across our three regional offices and the Kathmandu Head Office.
Saki Thapa
Advocacy, Networking and Resource Mobilization Manager Member of Senior Management Team
Saki Thapa works as an Advocacy, Networking and Resource Mobilization Manager at BNMT Nepal. She has over 10 years’ experience in designing grants applications and projects in BNMT, and plays key role in strategic planning and policies formulation in the organization. She has led the management of multiple projects on sexual and reproductive health and rights, WASH, Mental health and evidence synthesis for health system strengthening in Nepal.
Rajesh Parajuli
Senior Human Resource and Administration Manager Member of Senior Management Team
Rajesh Parajuli is the Human Resource and Administration Manager of BNMT Nepal. With over 25 years of experience in overall human resources and operation management, he is responsible for overseeing employee recruitment and retention, performance appraisal, legal compliance, compensation, benefits, development of policies and long-term staffing strategies and day-to-day administrative, logistics and procurement management. He is the focal person at BNMT for coordinating with the government authorities and other stakeholders.
Dr. Kritika Dixit
Research Manager Member of Senior Management Team
Kritika Dixit is the Research Manager at BNMT with experience of over nine years in infectious diseases, mental health, and reproductive and sexual health. She is leading a research programme focused on barriers to healthcare access especially in rural areas. Her team is generating evidence to inform patient-centric healthcare models to improve equity in communities. She led the research implementation to develop a locally appropriate socioeconomic support package for TB affected households in Nepal. She is currently completing the final year of a PhD at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
Gyanendra Shrestha
National Program Coordinator
Gyanendra Shrestha is the National Program Coordinator and the eastern regional manager of BNMT Nepal. He has over 25 years of experience and deep understanding of the implementation and factors driving successful delivery of community based public health programmes in Nepal. He is passionate about improving healthcare access and livelihoods for remote rural communities in Nepal and has successfully implemented many challenging or pioneering projects through working in close consultation with community stakeholders. He is responsible for ensuring successful field implementation of all the programs of the organization.
Soma Rai Sitling
HR and Admin Officer Member of Senior Management Team
Soma Rai Sitling is the Human Resource and Administration Officer at Birat Nepal Medical Trust and Project Administrator for the IMPACT 2 TB Project. She has been working at BNMT for the past 10 years and has over 15 years of experience in this field.
Mr Mahesh Sharma
Chair of the Board
Mahesh Sharma has more than twenty five years of experience in programme development and management including policy development and policy analysis in the area of health, HIV/AIDS, TB (inducing National Strategy Application – GF), community development. He has written number of successful national proposals to Global Fund for HIV/AIDS and TB; prepared national HIV/AIDS strategy and budgeted work plans. He has worked with the Government, Save the Children (UK), BNMT, UNDP in Nepal and has taken HIV/AIDS related assignments in the region (Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, UNAIDS Regional support team at Bangkok). Has worked extensively in Global Fund related work particularly in CCM strengthening (Nepal, Solomon Islands) and CCM eligibility performance assessment (EPA). He has also carried out number of evaluations, assessments (including National AIDS Spending Assessment – NASA) and health programme reviews.
He is actively involved in various civil society organisations and has represented in national institutions in various capacity i.e. Board member in Govt, HIV/AIDS and STI Control Board (2008 – 2010), CCM technical subcommittee members (2005 – 2008) and member in oversight committee (Jan – July 2012) including technical review panel and peer reviewers, and BNMT/UK Board of Trustees (2006 – 2010).
He has authored/co-authored number of articles in national and international journals, made presentation at international conferences and seminar within country and outside.
Dr Buddha Basnyat
Vice-Chair of the Board
Dr Buddha Basnyat, a graduate of St. Xavier’s Godavari, is a medical doctor practicing medicine in Kathmandu, Nepal. His research interests are infectious disease and high altitude medicine both of which are in ample supply in Nepal. He has published widely in both these fields in prestigious medical journals and written chapters with co- authors in the latest standard medical textbooks( for example, Harrison’s Textbook of Internal Medicine, Oxford Textbook of Medicine, and Manson’s Tropical Diseases). He has almost 300 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals, in all likelihood more than anyone else from Nepal. He is the former Director for the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit\Nepal and is also the Medical Director for the Travel and Mountain Medicine Center (a travel medicine clinic), The Himalayan Rescue Association (dealing with high altitude medical problems), and the Mountain Medicine Society of Nepal. In all these institutions one of his primary interest is to encourage young people to do clinical research. He also works at Patan Hospital as a consultant in the internal medicine department and is a Professor of Physiology at the Patan Academy of Health Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh). He is also the Principal Investigator at Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. He is the Honorary Consul for Canada in Nepal.
Dr Kulesh Bahadur Thapa is a Consultant Paediatrician and Head of the Department of the Paediatric Department at Nepal Police Hospital since 1985. He completed his MD from People’s Friendship University (Russia) in 1990. He gained Diploma in Child Health from Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (Nepal) in 1990.
He started his career as an Inspector of Police and retired holding the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police. He also had added responsibility of Administrative Division of the Hospital as he rose in ranks.
He is involved in public health and adolescent health and started an adolescent health counselling service at the Police Hospital.
He has been involved in the development of the SOP of the Hospital disaster Preparedness Plan. He looks after the children’ health of the police and their family, and also the disaster management aspect of the hospital, organization and preparation of the staff. He is also a designer and instructor for the Basic Search and Rescue Training for the community. He is a team member and the lead trainer for the MFR training in the UNDP project of CBDRR program of the Chhatrapati Free Clinic. He is a monitor for the Helping Babies Breathe Programme which is introduced in Kathmandu hospitals and in the country since 2013.
Heem S. Shakya
Treasurer of the Board
Heem S. Shakya is a health system strengthening expert with more than 20 years of professional working experience in Nepal, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. He specialized in procurement and supply chain management of the public health sector. He is also well-versed in public health programs like family planning, maternal and child health, sexual reproductive health and rights, HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria. He has served as an oversight committee member Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) at the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) for The Global Fund Programs – HIV/TB/Malaria from 2018 to 2021. He was a lead National Consultant, to develop a Procurement and Supply Management of HIV/AIDs commodities as part of the National HIV Strategy Plan 2016 – 2021.
During his 20+ years of professional career, he has developed and implemented community-based health programs and interventions and carried out studies and assessments that have strengthened the health systems of the countries. He has worked and held key positions with JSI, USAID | DELIVER, GHSC-PSM, POSSIBLE, UNFPA, SAVE, USP/PQM+, and WHO. He has published many articles in national and international journals and authored two books – “Transformed”, an autobiography, and “Effective Health Logistics for Better Health Services”.
Santosh Gyawali
Executive Member of the Board
Santosh Gyawali is engaged in the field of Disaster Risk Management in Nepal. He has a master’s degree in Information Technology with more than 20 years of experience in Information Resource Management. Immediately after the Haiti earthquake he changed career and got involved in disaster risk management work. He also served as the General Secretary and Vice President of Health Care Foundation Nepal with the National Kidney Centre as its largest operations.
Shobhana Gurung Pradhan
Executive Member of the Board
Shobhana Gurung Pradhan has over 24 years of experience working in organisational management and leadership. Currently the Country Director of BBC Media Action in Nepal, she has also served in a similar capacity with BNMT. She has previously worked with a bi-lateral and multilateral agencies, International non-governmental organisations, local civil society and the private sector.
An MBA graduate from AIT Thailand, she gained her BSC Degree from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines and further training in management and development in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Dr Sabina Shah Pahari
Executive Member of the Board
Dr Sabina Shah Pahari has volunteered in the field of Child Health as a Consultant Paediatrician in institutions like Ek Ek Paila and Kathmandu Institute of Child Health. Dr Pahari is a certified trainer of Child Protection (safeguarding children) and Pediatric Life Support. Furthermore, she is one of the executive board members of Birat Nepal Medical Trust Nepal (BNMT Nepal) and Kathmandu Sachey Foundation. She is also an active member of Zonta Club, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Dr Pahari had served as Consultant Paediatrician for the SAARC secretariat, Nepal and an Appraiser for International Trainee Doctors (UK).
Sunita (name changed) is a 51-year-old housewife living in a remote village Simalghari in Chitwan district. She belongs to a poor family. Although suffering from poverty, she has lived a happy life. One day after returning from her father’s house,...