People behind TSK

Jaya Luintel

Ms. Jaya Luintel is a prominent, award winning, nationally acclaimed journalist and women’s rights advocate.  Over the last decade, she has received a number of fellowships and honors for her communications work in the areas of gender, women’s rights and the empowerment of marginalized people.  She started her radio career from Radio Sagarmatha in 1999, where she started radio’s first show on gender equality and women’s rights. After joining Equal Access Nepal in 2007, Jaya designed and executed several radio projects focusing on women’s empowerment, gender justice, health & nutrition, HIV /AIDS and violence against women, and she served as the Project Coordinator for the VOICES project radio Program Samajhdari (“Mutual Understanding”), which was recognized with the 2010 One World Media Special Award.  Jaya also pioneered the groundbreaking Community Reporter Initiative that trains rural, minority, and lower caste women as community reporters to contribute content to radio projects. Jaya has a post-graduate diploma in Women Studies and was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship Affiliate participant at Stanford University in 2010-2011.

Rajan Parajuli

Mr. Rajan Parajuli started his journalism career as a teenager. At 13, he joined Metro FM, run by Kathmandu Metropolitan city, where he led the production of a radio program targeted to children. In 2002, he joined Antenna Foundation Nepal as a reporter where he now serves as Chief Executive Producer. As CEP, he leads the program production department of Antenna. While working with Antenna, he executed one of Nepal’s most liked projects, Doko-Mobile Radio, where he had an opportunity to meet with many people experimenting with radio by themselves. During his professional career as a journalist, he has trained more than 300 reporters throughout Nepal. Internationally trained at Radio Netherlands Training center, Rajan likes to explore and experiment new ideas in media.  Currently pursuing his Master’s degree in Mass communication and journalism, Rajan believes in listening to people’s stories.

Pushpa Basnet

Ms. Pushpa Basnet has been given a CNN Hero[oine] Of the Year 2012 Award for her work with the children in prisons in Nepal. She is a social worker and  Founder/President of the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) and Butterfly Home. She and her organization work to strengthen the rights of children living in the prison with their parents. Basnet started her career at the age of 21, while she was still an undergraduate in social work. As part of her college assignment, she visited the women prison in Kathmandu. She was dismayed when she saw children living with their parents behind the bars. Then, in 2005, she started a non-profit organization -The Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) that provides alternative residence, school enrollment, free meals and medical care to the children.

Charimaya Tamang

Ms. Charimaya Tamang was 16 when she was trafficked to India. After spending 22 months in a brothel in India as a slave, along with other girls she was rescued by the Indian government in 1996. After returning to Nepal, Ms. Tamang faced social stigma and was outcast from her own community. In 2000, Ms. Tamang and 15 other survivors established Shakti Sumaha, an anti-trafficking NGO. She is the first survivor who filed the case against the trafficker in Nepal.  And since a decade and more, she has been saving hundreds of women from trafficking, doing door to door awareness programs at remote villages and helping survivors to file cases against traffickers. She received national and international honor for her work. She was awarded the Hero Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery Award in 2011.

Durga Banjade

Ms. Durga Banjade is passionate about women’s meaningful participation in policy making.  Through her work she advocates for pro-women policies and programs. She believes that stories help inspire the collective actions which leads to participatory policy making. Durga holds Master’s Degree in Public Administration and has Master’s Degree in International Studies (Women and Development)” from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea.