Dr. Bishnu Maya Pariyar – Social Entrepreneur and Award-Winning Scholar.

Honorary Doctor of Letters, (Pine Manor College, 2013); Masters, International Development; US/Canada Program, 2006.

Dr. Pariyar is the founding President of the Association of Dalit Women’s Advancement of Nepal (ADWAN); a prolific social entrepreneur, an award-winning scholar; and a well-known advocate for marginalized Nepali communities. Dr. Pariyar was born in a Dalit (Untouchable) family of ten children in a remote village in Nepal and has overcome tremendous obstacles of gender, caste discrimination, and poverty.

At age 20, Dr. Pariyar co-founded ADWAN with the exclusive objective of serving Dalit women and children of Nepal. ADWAN is a rights-based Nepali organization which, since 1998, has supported more than 50,000 Dalit and marginalized women and their family members in Nepal.

During the pandemic, ADWAN Nepal has been distributing food and essential goods to needy families in 3 districts of Nepal. (Go to: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/relief-fund-for-coronavirus-pandemic-victims if you would like to support this work). But, Dr. Pariyar now lives in New Jersey, where she works as an anti-gender violence Program Coordinator at CarePoint Health System. When COVID19 hit the United States, Dr Pariyar not only continued her work at the hospital, but also became very aware of the difficult situation international students were going through.

Dr. Pariyar recounts what moved her to support about 200 international, mostly Nepali, students in New Jersey:

“For every student, graduation is a very special and important achievement after many years of hard work. Especially for international students who invite parents and loved ones to be with them to cheer up when they walk down on the convocation and expect gifts. Unfortunately, this year, because of the lock down, students didn’t get a chance to walk on convocation. As a former international student myself, I can feel their hope and agony of not having their loved ones when they graduate. Our team decided to provide a small gift package with essential health care items as a gift to our mostly Nepali international students. Yes, with the help of so many generous donors, we were able to handover gifts to 200 students. We got very touching notes from students after they received our gifts.”

Her social commitment did not stop there and thanks to the help of many donors, she was also able to distribute essential healthcare items and food for more than 121 families in New Jersey. Noting this community support, she says “I received support from everywhere.”

Delivering gifts to the Nepalese students.