After 28 years of social work in his community, Neel Thakuri has retired this year from his work as Founder and Director of TEAM Nepal. Neel has been a leader for change and development in his rural home village of Talamarang. He worked with passion and vision for decades, and CLN is proud to have supported many of TEAM Nepal’s projects over his career. In 28 years, we estimate that Neel has helped to care for and educate over 8000 children through the Children’s Home, the Talamarang village school (Tersay School), as well as classroom repair and maintenance for 18 schools across the entire Sindhupalchowk District.
Neel began his social work efforts in 1995 by organizing local Kathmandu businessmen who were also from his village of Talamarang to expand their rural primary school. Because the government would not pay for teachers for an unestablished school, they collected funds among themselves and gave money each year to add an additional teacher’s salary, and thereby add a grade, until they had funded the school through high school. When they needed more classrooms to accommodate the additional grades, Neel turned to his foreign friends to help expand the school. Today the government pays for 28 teachers across 12 grades. The facilities include a science lab and computers, child-friendly kindergarten classrooms, and extra tutoring for upper grades. It is now a top regional school and has some of the highest exam scores in the entire district!
In 2005, Neel founded his nonprofit organization, TEAM Nepal (Together Everyone Achieves More) and started the Little Angels Children’s Home nearby. He was careful to purchase land in the nonprofit’s name so that no single person could sell it or financially benefit from it. Today that land holds 2 buildings with 24 rooms plus a large group kitchen and is on its way to becoming a girls’ hostel. Through TEAM Nepal, CLN has financially supported the Children’s Home, Tersay School,Batase School, earthquake relief / emergency flood repairs, plus health & dental camps in remote areas that served 3500 children and families treating disease, addressing gynecological problems, and teaching children to brush their teeth.
In the region where TEAM Nepal works, earthquakes, floods, and landslides have created cascading problems that create deeper poverty. AP news reported recently on these issues in Melamchi, which is just 20 minutes away. When these problems arose at the same time in Talamarang, Neel exhibited unparalleled leadership to secure the Terssy School, a foundation for the whole community. Neel took personal loans to help fund emergency classroom repairs after a massive earthquake and also to build a large retaining wall to protect the school land after a massive flood swept away much of the embankment. CLN supported part of these endeavors as well.
Deana’s first trekking group in 2006 gave funds to support classroom construction at Tersay School and later trekking groups helped support Batase School and the Children’s Home. Since the formal establishment of CLN in 2008, we have continued to support TEAM Nepal and have been proud to partner with Neel and support his work. We could see his dedication from the very beginning: few people in Nepal give as much of their personal time and energy to charitable work, especially in rural areas. For many years, Neel would regularly leave his house at 4:30am to drive 3 hours to the area schools and Children’s Home in order to manage the projects, returning home to his wife and 3 sons late at night. These field visits were an adventure when Deana joined him. Neel has always been a hands-on person who ensured things were done right, small and large – from combing the children’s hair before school to wading into a flooding river to place large stones for a retaining wall that prevented the school from washing away. It is with pride and gratitude that we honor his years of service to his community and the rewarding partnership we’ve had since 2005.
In 2024, Neel finally learned first-hand what we have long known: it’s hard for others to work like he does. He had a unique combination of local support, foreign support, seemingly endless energy, and deep trust with all his professional partners. It has been a challenge to hand off TEAM Nepal to successors who are able to continue the work. His hope was that the Girls’ Hostel would be opened last year, but things always take longer to figure out in Nepal! We have been discussing options with Neel and hope that management of the Children’s Home buildings will be handed over to Tersay School for a Girls’ Hostel that is managed by the school. Tersay School’s existing hostel (which CLN helped to open) has become self-sustaining, and more students would like to have hostel rooms available. The school is well-run and can provide the oversight needed for a hostel which requires daily management. We are hopeful that the transition is now getting on track for a new and much-needed Girls’ Hostel which will be funded by the school and student fees.
If you ever met Neel over the years, you will know that he’s happiest when he’s busy. In his retirement from charitable work, he’s still full of life! He’s back to business, running his thangka and handicraft business and showing at trade shows and expos in New Jersey and Tibet. He’s also spending time with his four grandchildren (one in Texas, the others in Nepal). We wish him every success in life and work! CLN will also be continuing to keep an eye on the home-to-hostel transition in the coming year.
