Rita Thapa has over 35 years of experience as a feminist educator and a community activist in Nepal and internationally.  She is the founder of Tewa, the innovative philanthropic Nepal women's fund, and Nagarik Aawaz, a NGO engaged in conflict transformation and peace-building in Nepal. She's also the former Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Fund for Women and former Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the Urgent Action Fund. She currently serves as Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Fund for Community Foundations. Rita was named an Ashoka Fellow in 1998 and was included in the 1000 Women for Peace nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.  She speaks to us about:

• overcoming aid dependency in Nepal
• an alternative model of fundraising and grantmaking
• dismantling hierarchies in work cultures 
• fostering community ownership
• challenging patriarchy, caste and class divisions
• politics of development
• regional feminist solidarity - and much more!

She joins us from Kathmandu, Nepal.