Maggie Namjou

A graduate of Boston University with both a Bachelor and Master of Arts in Anthropology, as well as a second Master of Arts focusing on International Development from the School for International Training, Maggie Namjou has worked in the development sector for the past 25 years. Specializing in South Asia, and especially Nepal, Maggie Namjou has made a significant impact through a number of various organizations. One of Maggie Namjou’s greatest accomplishments is the establishment of The Rising Child Nepal Foundation in 1997. As Founder and Director, Maggie Namjou has guided The Rising Child Nepal Foundation in its mission to take children off the streets of Nepal and provide them with medical care, education, vocational training, and a healthy home life. Through her non-profit organization, Maggie Namjou has also combated the practice of Kamaiya in Nepal, in which young girls are sold into bonded labor to provide an income for their families. In addition to rescuing these girls from slave labor, Maggie Namjou strives to provide them with education and to guard them from further bondage by replacing the income that their families would have earned from their labor. Through The Rising Child Nepal Foundation, Maggie Namjou has also made strides to improve the lives of all women and children in Nepal and, specifically, in the city of Kathmandu. In Kalimati, a slum area of Kathmandu, Maggie Namjou offers drop-in classes for women and children that teach basic hygiene, nutrition, and literacy. Maggie Namjou’s program provides free lunches for more than 100 hungry children every day. Encouraging education for women, Maggie Namjou secured scholarships for 175 young women, most of whom were Dalit, members of the lowest class, or former Kamaiyas. Maggie Namjou spends the majority of her year working in Kathmandu but returns to the United States in the summer, during which time she volunteers with a refugee resettlement program and Planned Parenthood.