Raghu Dhital

Raghu Dhital is the Executive Director of BNMT Nepal. Raghu has worked in community based public health with BNMT for twenty years and has diverse experience across multiple sectors, including infectious diseases control programmes, WASH and disaster response and recovery. He has a strong passion for working with communities to identify priorities and facilitate solutions together. Throughout his career, he has worked in partnership with government health services and NGO networks to augment existing services and contribute to the development of Nepal.

His main responsibilities are to oversee the overall activities of BNMT; develop strategies, plans and activities for the all the programs of BNMT; establish good coordination and collaboration with government authorities, District Health Offices, NGO partners and advocates and facilitate the successful implementation of Tuberculosis Control Program.

Before taking this role, Raghu served as the Deputy director of BNMT. He previously worked as Project Manager for IMPACT TB phase I from 2017-2019. He was involved in Britain Nepal Medical Trust as a TB REACH Project Manager from February 2012 to June 2014 and has successfully implemented TB REACH WAVE- 2 project in Nepal. He has also been involved in Active Case Finding through systematic mobilization of community health volunteers including initiation of microscopic camps in hard to reach areas of Nepal.

Dr. Maxine Caws

Max Caws is the Principal Investigator of IMPACT TB and a senior TB researcher at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She was Head of the TB group at Oxford University Clinical Research Unit Vietnam for 11 years and researches diverse aspects of TB including drug resistance, diagnosis, clinical treatment trials, bacterial virulence and host susceptibility determinants. She is currently based in Kathmandu, Nepal. She has a BSc in biochemistry from the University of St Andrews, a PHD in medical microbiology from King’s College, London, where her thesis topic was tuberculous meningitis, and an MSC in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Laxmi Prasad Dahal

Laxmi Prasad Dahal is Chief Finance Officer of BNMT Nepal based on head office Kathmandu. He is responsible for overseeing the finances and accounting operations, financial planning and management of BNMT Nepal. He has worked at Birat Nepal Medical Trust, Nepal since January 2017. He earned his Masters’ degree in Commerce at Nepal Commerce Campus Kathmandu. He has over 15 years’ of professional experience in finance, accounts, taxation and audit matters.

Similarly, he worked in The Britain Nepal Medical Trust in Nepal with different capacities from July 2006 to December 2016.

Saki Thapa

Saki Thapa serves as the Advocacy, Networking, and Resource Mobilization Manager at BNMT Nepal. With a strong focus on project designing and grants application, she has demonstrated remarkable success in securing funds for numerous impactful initiatives. Notable among these are Health Link funded by UK aids, Enhancing Community Health funded by the Big Lottery Fund, Health Facilities Reconstruction and Health Service Strengthening I & II funded by AmeriCares, TB REACH Wave 5, Adolescents SRHR project funded by AmplifyChange, Project Horizon funded by BNMT UK, as well as the Global Fund projects 2017-2018 and 2018 to 2021. She has also contributed writing the projects – SUSTAIN: Emergency support and Sustenance to communities affected by crisis funded by AmeriCares, and COVID Kurakani, a supplement of COVID gene sequencing project, Epidemic Intelligence.

With an MSc in Public Health from the esteemed Berlin School of Public Health, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany, Saki has taken the lead in successfully implementing three Sexual and Reproductive health and Rights projects (AmplifyChange, Butterfly, Project Horizon) in rural Sindhupalchowk, Nepal. She has also spearheaded the Research, Evidence and Development Initiative (READ-It) project, focusing on evidence synthesis tailored to national gaps; and the Breaking the Stigma project, which explores the feasibility and acceptability of self-sampling for HPV as an alternative method for cervical cancer screening. Additionally, Saki holds a master’s degree in Health Care Management from Pokhara University, Nepal.

As a valuable member of the senior management team, Saki has played a key role in the development of organizational policies, policy briefs, project briefs, reports, storybooks, and IEC/BCC materials. She has also contributed significantly to the strategic planning of BNMT, shaping the organization’s vision and direction in the strategic plan for 2020-2025.

Rajesh Parajuli

Rajesh Parajuli is the Human Resource and Administration Manager of BNMT Nepal since July 2014. Before this, he has worked with the Britain Nepal Medical Trust since April 1994 at various sections in different capacities. Now, he is a member of Senior Management Team of BNMT Nepal. He is responsible for overall human resources management and administrative management of the organization including overseeing of hiring, retention, termination, personnel records, 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 also focal person for coordinating with the government authorities and other stakeholders.

Rajesh has a Masters Degree in social science from Tribhuvan University and obtained various professional courses at national level and international level. He has successfully represented the organization in different national and international level meeting, workshops and seminars.

Kritika Dixit

Kritika Dixit is a Research Manager at BNMT with experience of over eight years in infectious diseases, mental health, and reproductive and sexual health. Her main area of interest is the social and structural determinants of health and the design and evaluation of socioeconomic interventions to tackle these factors. Ms Dixit led research projects that mainly involve exploring barriers to healthcare access especially in rural areas and to provide evidence to inform patient-centric healthcare models to improve equity in communities. More recently, she led the research implementation in the projects supported by the European Union, the Wellcome Trust, UK, and the Stop TB partnership which aim to increase tuberculosis case diagnosis in Nepal and to develop a locally appropriate socioeconomic support package for TB affected households. She holds a master’s degree in Global Health from Thammasat University, Thailand, and is a current PhD student at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Ms Dixit is a Farrar Foundation fellow and is also a recipient of early-career research grant from the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) as well as travel scholarships from the RSTMH and the TB Modelling and Analysis Consortium, UK.

Soma Rai

Soma is a HR and Admin Officer at Birat Nepal Medical Trust (BNMT) and Project Administrator for the IMPACT TB Project. She has been working at BNMT for the past 6 years and has over 15 years of experience in this field.

Nischal Bal Lama

Nishcal Bal Lama is Sr. Finance Officer at BNMT. He is mainly responsible for effective budgetary and financial controls, including the monitoring of expenditures and the reporting and investigation of significant budget variances along with the reconciliation of the field office expenditure report with the grant reports and oversee any inconsistencies that may exist. He is MBA graduate from APEX College (Pokhara University) and has more than 7 years of progressive work experience in the field of TEVT (Technical Education and Vocational Training), Agriculture, Reconstruction, WASH, Long Distance Sponsorship, SRHR and Tuberculosis. He was previously associated with Manakamana Training and Skill Development Institute (MTSDI) and Association for International Solidarity in Asia (ASIA Onlus Italy). His areas of interests are Finance, Economics, Football, Table Tennis, Mountain Biking and Trekking.

Bibha Dhungel

Bibha, an MBA graduate and passionate advocate for public engagement in health and science, leads the public engagement department at Birat Nepal Medical Trust since 2019. She also works as one of the Associate Festival Directors for the Global South Arts and Health Week, being held in Egypt in September 2023.

She has spearheaded diverse projects in BNMT, collaborating with communities, stakeholders, artists, and creative professionals, focusing on COVID-19, tuberculosis, and menstrual hygiene management. Notable projects include COVID animations, TB day activities with folk song and dance, community perspectives videos, Mithila art-themed TB murals, and project video summaries. She co-designed and led the ‘COVID Kurakani’ project, featuring televised panel discussions on pathogen sequencing. Additionally, she successfully organized the ‘Lead like a Woman’ national conference, empowering students to learn about leadership and overcome barriers. With 8 years of experience, Bibha leads the organization branding, managing all the organization owned digital media (websites/social media accounts), and diverse publications including the annual report, policy briefs and research summaries.

She has also contributed in writing successful grants for the organization including, COVID Kurakani (conversations), SUSTAIN series (1- 5), AmplifyChange and TB REACH and Global Fund. She engages in developing various reports and documentation, as well as monitoring and evaluation functions.

She is a talented singer and her interests include singing, dancing and art, with a particular interest in traditional Nepali music and dance forms.

Bhola Rai

Bhola Rai is the Project Manager in BNMT Nepal based in the Makwanpur district. He is leading the ASCOT project, inbuilt within in the IMPACT TB project, which aims to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a socioeconomic support intervention for TB-affected households in Nepal. He has been working in BNMT for four years as a Research Associate in the IMPACT TB project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 and the Seed Award project funded by the Wellcome Trust. Bhola holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health and he is also pursuing master’s degree in Public Health Administration from Tribhuwan University. Bhola has over seven years’ experience in research, particularly in data collection, management and analysis. He has over 10 publications in high impact peer-reviewed journals. Mr Rai has also worked as a team leader with the Nepal Nutrition Intervention Project in Sarlahi, district in partnerships with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh.

Manoj Kumar Sah

Manoj Kumar Sah is the District Programme Coordinator for IMPACT TB Project in Mahottari District. He is mainly responsible for implementing IMPACT TB project activities and research in the district. He has completed a Master in sociology, a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine & Surgery (BAMS), a Bachelor degree in education in Health and a certificate in General Medicine. I was involved in different public health project in coordination and management of district level health program activities (RH, CB-NCP/IMCI & CB-IMNCI, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS), health system strengthening, inventory and logistics management, good coordinating and supportive facilitative supervision and monitoring of the programme activities.

Govind Majhi

Govinda Majhi is our District Program Coordinator for Pyuthan District. He has been working with DrOTS Project since July 2019 but has been part of the Birat Nepal Medical Trust team from 2017. His job role includes the planning and implementation of programme activities for DrOTS Project within the district.

Govinda holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Purbanchal University (Nepal) and a Master’s Degree from Rajiv Gandhi University (India), both in Public Health. His Masters focused on ‘Factors causing delay in pulmonary-TB diagnosisin Morang District Nepal’. Continuing his interest in TB, Govinda applied for an internship in BNMT’s tuberculosis programme in Sunsari District -sponsored by Global Fund. He was then offered a job as District Programme Coordinator for the area of Dang, Udayapur and Makwanpur for IMPACT TB. His passion towards fighting the chronic ongoing problem of TB in Nepal inspired him to eventually apply for his current role in Pyuthan district. His vision is to see a TB-free Nepal.

Renu Bhandari Lama

Renu Bhandari Lama is positioned as Receptionist in Birat Nepal Medical Trust. She is one of the long serving employees of BNMT, working for more than 10 years in administration. She is mainly responsible for arranging appointments and logistic, managing incoming and outgoing correspondence, maintaining records related to vehicles and fuel, office equipment and general filing of office documents; maintain petty cash and assists human resource manager in other administrative and HR functions. She has more than 15 years of experience in the field.

Gangaram Budathoki

Gangaram Budhathoki is the project manager for the DrOTS Nepal project in BNMT Nepal and currently stationed in the regional office, Nepalgunj. He has been working with DrOTS Project since January 2019 but he has been part of the Birat Nepal Medical Trust team since 2017. He was initially appointed as District Program Coordinator for TB REACH Wave 5 project for Bardiya and Salyan district and later upgraded to M&E manager in the project. His job role includes the program planning, managing, coordination, monitoring & evaluation, implementation, recording and reporting of program activitiess as per Project objectives and activities within the regional and project districts.

He has worked with Government job in various health institutions as a health officer for more than twenty years and also in I/NGOs for more than three years as program officer and program coordinator. During his tenure with Government health institutions and I/NGOs offices, his role included the facilitation (training, meeting & workshop), coordination, drafting of project proposals, program design, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation, recording & reporting and research activities. Gangaram also has previous experience at the Government health system, Nepal National Tuberculosis program, district program coordinator, regional HIV program officer and community health quality improvement Officer.

Gangaram holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Tribhuvan University, Nepal in Health Education and Masters in Public Health from State University of Bangladesh (SUB). He wants to see Nepal as TB free region.

Gyanendra Shrestha

Gyanendra Shrestha is the Project Manager for the Epidemic Intelligence project and Eastern Regional Manager. He is an experienced public health professional and project leader, starting as a Statistical officer for Government of Nepal in the year 1997, and later joining BNMT as a drug scheme In-charge, progressing as a district programme coordinator and project manager. He has a deep understanding of the implementation and factors driving successful delivery of community based public health programmes in Nepal. He is responsible for ensuring successful implementation of project; establishing good coordination and networking with project partners, government authorities, major hospitals, health offices, and other development partners.

Gyanendra holds a double master’s degree in Public administration and Population and Rural Development.

Poonam Bista

She is serving BNMT as a District TB Project coordinator since last 3 years (16th April, 2018) at National Tuberculosis Program supported by Global fund /SCI at Morang district of Province No. 1. Being the Coordinator, she is responsible for Planning, implementing, Coordinating with stakeholders, and monitoring the Project. She had past experience of working at NEW ERA Research Center as a revised HMIS facilitator for Morang District. She had also gained experience as a facilitator of the students of Diploma in general medicine at Birat Health College for a year. She was also engaged as Field supervisor at ageing survey conducted by MoHP at FY 2017/18.Graduating at Child development and gender socialization, she had done bachelor’s degree in Public health. Being a public health professional, she would like to serve the nation contributing to uplift the health status of the people as a whole.

Puskar Raj Paudel

Puskar Raj Paudel is the Project Manager of the IMPACT 2 TB project, based in Makwanpur district. He is a monitoring and evaluation and surveillance professional with Masters in Population Studies and Masters in Sociology from TU. He has over 12 years experience in project management, team management, logistic planning, monitoring, and evaluation of health & development work in Nepal. He has previously worked in KNCV TB Foundation, Mother and Infant Research Activities (MIRA), the New Era, SSMP/NHSSP, and Mercy Corps Nepal.

He has wide and extensive experience in community-based research projects, including randomized controlled trial (RCT), specifically in the area of maternal and child health, nutrition and tuberculosis issues, disaster risk reduction, cooperative, microenterprise development, and economic development.

Swastika Shrestha

Swastika Shrestha is a graduate with a Masters degree in Global Health from the Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. She works as Research Officer in the project, Breaking the Stigma: An alternative approach to cervical cancer screening in Nepal.

Having had a couple of years of clinical experience as a dental surgeon, she developed an interest in the field of public health after which she pursued her Masters in the same field. Her previous experience of working in university hospitals piqued her interest in research driven tasks. Her areas of interest in research revolve around infectious and non-infectious diseases, sexual and reproductive health and she also likes exploring various social determinants of health. She enjoys working with and learning from people from different walks of life.

Rajan Paudel

Rajan Paudel is a young and energetic public health professional who’s aspiring to be an agent of change to improve lives and well-being especially for people living in rural communities.

Rajan is positioned as Research Associate, primarily responsible for the implementation of the operational researches under the Nick Simon’s Foundation funded IMPACT TB – II Project. He’s also working for TB READY project implementation funded by Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH), National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and Farrar Foundation.

Rajan has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from the Institute of Medicine. During his internship at BNMT in 2019, he was actively involved in TB contact tracing, data collection, and management, as well as interviewing TB patients in IMPACT TB Project. He also contributed to the mapping of private pharmacies in Chitwan district. His interest lies in health systems research and social protection on diseases of poverty.

Nirmala Khatri

Nirmala Khatri is the Finance and Administration Officer of BNMT Nepal, positioned in Nepalgunj Regional Office, Banke district. She has been working under the IMPACT 2 TB since February 2020. Nirmala has more than seven years’ of working experience in several I/NGOs with expertise in financial planning, implementation, organizing as well as program implementation.  Previously she worked as program officer in National Federation of the Disabled Nepal (NFDN), Karnali Province project, fund by FFO Norway and DPOD Denmark. Nirmala holds a Bachelor Degree from Mahendra Multiple Campus, Nepalgunj (Tribhuvan University), with specialization in Finance. Nirmala finds passion in working for the poor and marginalized communities. She confidently handles financial matters and manages work very well under pressure. She is fond of adventures.

Dipendra Panday

Dipendra Panday is the ‘District Program Coordinator’ in Epidemic Intelligence project positioned in Banke district of Nepal. His is responsible for planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring activities for Epidemic Intelligence Project, and supporting the TARGET TB Project and TB Recovery Project within the district. Dipendra has previous experiences of working at BNMT as the District Coordinator for multiple projects such as ‘Enhancing community health in Nepal’ project funded by Big Lottery Fund and ‘National TB Program’ funded by Global Fund/Save the Children. He has completed Community Medicine Auxiliary(CMA), Health Assistant (HA) from CTEVT and BPH from Tribhuvan University (TU). He has received different training such as; CB-IMNCI, IMAM, TB Modular, MToT on Golden Thousand Days, MToT on TB management & e-TB, DHIS-2, M-health, life skill training.

Bishow Puri

Bishow Puri is the District Project Officer, positioned in Bardiya district. He is primarily responsible for implementing Nick Simons Foundation-funded IMPACT TB II project and SUSTAIN V project funded by Americares. Mr. Puri is a young public health professional who aspires to serve the community by eliminating inequalities in health and assuring equitable distribution of health services, ultimately contributing to achieving Universal Health Coverage.

Safal Kunwar

Mr. Safal Jung Kunwar is public health graduate currently working as a District Project Officer at BNMT Nepal in Sindhupalchowk.  He has been exposed to numerous leadership platforms for advancing adolescent health and rights, gender equality, and human rights. Mr. Kunwar is passionate about applying his knowledge and experience in public health to help vulnerable, disadvantaged, and marginalized people. He has a keen interest in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Maternal and Child Health, and Public Health Research. He loves exploring different places, and cultures. Photography and videography are few of many skills he possesses.

Akhilesh Kumar Jha

Akhilesh Kumar Jha is the District Program Coordinator based in Pyuthan district in BNMT Nepal. Mr Jha is passionate to work for the welfare of the people across the globe through the best use of his public health knowledge, practices, skills and experiences.

He has been working as a lead person in Pyuthan district in various projects of BNMT Nepal such as IMPACT II TB project, Target TB project, ASCOT project, TB Ready, SUSTAIN and TB Recovery project phase I from February 15 2022. Previously, He was also involved in Britain Nepal Medical Trust as lead person in Siraha, Saptari and Udayapur district in the TB Reach Wave II project. Altogether he has more than seven years of work experience in the field of public health.

He completed Bachelor in Public Health from Purbanchal University in 2010 and Master of Public Health in Health Service Management from P.U. College of Medical and Allied Sciences from Morang district Nepal. He was awarded with “Dr. Duwasu kshetri Gold Medal” for successfully completing MPH and securing the top position in Purbanchal University of 2017-19 batch.