Born on April 14, 1949 to Colonel Pratap Singh Gurung and Laxmi Gurung, Anuradha studied in St. Joseph Convent School, Kalimpong, India, where she developed interest for social work. Mother Teresa has always been her source of inspiration.

Anuradha started her career as an English teacher. After having worked for more than 20 years as a teacher, she felt she has something big to achieve. That’s when she decided to step in for a crusade against trafficking and related activities against women and children.

How it Started?

A social activist in Anuradha came out when she helped eight women, who were the victims of domestic violence and forced to beg, open small shops, with the help of the minimum income she was drawing as a salary.

The network went on to grow and eventually, UNICEF extended its support. Then, a team of 210 members, including lawyers, journalists, students, police men and nurses, joined her for an awareness campaign. Leading this team, she moved on to various villages of the country, which were most vulnerable to trafficking. Thus, her team grew leading path to a mighty organization.

Rise of Maiti Nepal

That was the time when human trafficking (women and girl trafficking) from and within Nepal was on rise, and there was hardly any helping hand. Anuradha decided to extend help to those in danger, need of support and suppressed. Thus, in 1993, she founded an organization called ‘Maiti Nepal’ in a small house with her minimal savings. Maiti Nepal, meaning mother Nepal, really became a mother to thousands of children, girls and women, offering them physical and mental support, shelter and life as a whole.

People who sought shelter in Maiti Nepal include the ones subjected to sex trafficking, forced to prostitution and contracted HIV, psychologically unwell, left away by family, among many others in need of rehabilitation, ranging from children to elderly women.

Maiti Nepal has grown over the years, and currently has three prevention homes, two hospices, eleven transit homes, and a formal school. In total, around 1000 children receive direct services from the organization every day.

Maiti Nepal’s wide range regular activities include awareness campaigns, community sensitization programs, apprehending traffickers, rescue operations, women empowerment programs, providing legal support to the needy and Anti Retro Viral Therapy (ART) to children and women infected by HIV, among others.

Person of Special Identity

Anuradha made her special mark as a social activist by rescuing over 12,000 girls from sex trafficking, and preventing more than 45,000 children from being trafficked across the Indo-Nepal border, with the help of her team. Her organization today patrols the Indo-Nepal border, and stays active in rescue operations, saving trafficked women from brothels in India with the help of Indian authorities and reuniting them with their families.

Anuradha was recognized for her activities and courageous acts of fighting for children and women rights, and was honored by various governments and institutions with 38 national and international awards, so far.

CNN called her ‘Hero of the Year’ in 2010, The Peace Abbey Foundation of Massachusetts honored her with the Courage of Conscience Award in 2006, the Indian Government conferred her with the country’s third highest civilian award – Padma Bhushan, and her home government, Nepal has been respecting and encouraging her all the time with many honorary titles.

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The Horrific Accident

Born as a normal child in the Ramechhap district of Nepal, Sudarshan excelled at sports in school and aspired to become a pilot or politician. However, during a vacation in Kathmandu when he was 16, he faced a tragic accident. He was flying a kite on a rooftop which got entangled in the overhead electric wires. He tried to use an iron rod to free the kite, being unaware of the disastrous consequences. A single naive act turned his whole life upside down. Both his hands suffered severe burns and had to be amputated.

Getting Back to Normalcy

During the following weeks and months all of Sudarshan’s friends deserted him instead of helping him cope with the darkest phase of his life. His parents though were very supportive and helped him in adjusting to the new situation. He slowly began training himself to do his everyday chores, like brushing teeth, taking showers, shaving, cooking and eating, with the use of his legs.

Sudarshan soon regained his positive outlook towards life and continued his education graduating with a degree in commerce. He learned to drive a car and demonstrated his skill to around 100,000 spectators. The event was widely covered in the Nepal media and made him very popular.

Achieving the Impossible

After settling down in Calgary, Canada, he wanted to realize his dream of setting foot atop Mount Everest without using any prosthetics, something which no one had done before. As part of the rigorous training for this herculean task, he climbed the peaks of Mount Yala and Mount Ramdung, and finally experienced the joy of reaching the top of the world when he scaled Mount Everest.

Armed with a belief that disability is not an inability, Sudarshan Gautam visited over 40 countries as a motivational keynote speaker. He has also acted in a couple of popular Nepali movies. He was honored with numerous awards, the most recent one being the South Asian Canadian Trailblazers award in May 2017.

His next goal is to climb Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada during May-June 2018 and promote it as an attractive destination for mountaineers. He plans to use the opportunity to raise funds for the handicapped in Canada.

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The Chaudhary family traces its roots to India. His grandfather Bhuramal Chaudhary was a textile merchant who migrated from the state of Rajasthan to Nepal in search of greener pastures.

After his demise, his son Lunkaran Chaudhary expanded his business and set up Arun Emporium, Nepal’s first department store. Subsequently, due to his ill health, Binod Chaudhary was forced to take up the family business at the age of 18.

Wai Wai Noodles

The high demand for Thai noodles among the Nepalese led Binod to take up the manufacture of noodles. He called his noodles Wai Wai, meaning “fast, fast” in Thai. Within a short period, Wai Wai noodles became the most popular brand of noodles in Nepal.

He gradually expanded his business overseas and setup factories of CG Foods in India, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Serbia.

Wai Wai noodles are sold in over 35 countries today and have earned Binod a 2% stake in the world’s instant noodles market.

Cinnovation Group

Binod Chaudhary set up the Cinnovation Group in Singapore as a multi-dimensional conglomerate offering world-class products and services. This group now includes over 48 companies and has vibrant offices in a number of countries.

Cinnovation and CG made it to the Forbes list in 2013 as the first Nepalese group to enter the Billion-dollar club. With a personal net worth of over USD 1.3 billion, Binod is Nepal’s sole billionaire.

“Making it Big”

Binod says that entrepreneurs need not necessarily come from business schools and that there is a lot one can learn outside the classroom. He attributes his success to self-discipline and is very appreciative of the Japanese ethics of teamwork, meticulousness and never keeping work pending.

Also Read: Top 15 richest people (Nepali Entrepreneurs) of Nepal

He advises aspiring entrepreneurs to follow their dreams and take advantage of today’s technology in carving a niche for themselves.

Binod Chaudhary’s autobiography “Making it Big” has been a bestseller in Nepal and is a great inspiration for anyone looking to succeed in life.

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Initial Phase of Career

After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park, Kiran embarked on a career in journalism at News 21 in Rockville, Maryland. She also worked with WICU-TV and KXTV as a reporter and morning anchor before joining the Fox News Channel. While at WICU-TV, Kiran received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s Best Enterprise Reporting award.

Association with Fox News and CNN

Kiran was associated with Fox News for six years and became well known as a rotating anchor for Fox News Live as also for her popular morning news program on weekends, Fox & Friends Weekend. During this time, the Association of Nepalis in the Americas honored her with the Making our Mark (MOM) Award.

When Kiran left Fox News, she was immediately hired by CNN as an anchor and correspondent. Upon signing the deal, she remarked that, “CNN is the gold standard when it comes to journalism, and I am thrilled to be part of the team.” She worked with the channel from 2007 to 2011 as an anchor of the “American Morning” broadcast, a three-hour flagship morning show. Kiran reported on several breaking news stories of that period covering the Virginia Tech Massacre, Gulf Oil Spill, Michael Jackson Memorial, San Diego Wildfires, the Royal Wedding, 2008 Election and Obama’s Inauguration among others.

Handling Multiple Roles

Subsequently, Kiran took on other challenging roles such as a freelance media consultant, public speaker, talk show host, benefit committee member and so on. She is also working as the Director, Strategic Marketing for the Miss Nepal US Pageant.

When the Nepalese American magazine was launched, to satiate the need of the Nepalese community in the US for an English magazine focusing on Nepal, Kiran became its Editor-in-Chief. She was also featured on the cover page of the inaugural issue.

Personal Life

Kiran was married to Chris Knowles, a former Fox News and CNN meteorologist. They have two children, daughter Maya Rose and son Christopher Chetry Knowles.

Kiran is often referred to as the “Himalayan Beauty” with reference to her roots in Nepal. With a passion for information coupled with a belief in encouraging those around her and making them shine, Kiran Chetry is undoubtedly a huge Nepalese success story.

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