KATHMANDU: Record-holding mountaineer Nima Rinji Sherpa has joined Christel House Nepal as a founding board member as the Indianapolis-based global nonprofit and school network plans to build a school in Kathmandu.

According to the announcement, Surya Karki is the founding CEO of Christel House Nepal, while Dr. Manish Thapa chairs the board. The founding board members include Nima Rinji Sherpa, Dileep Agrawal, and Preeti Bista.

Nima Rinji, a mountaineer, became the youngest person in history to summit all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks at age 18. Hailing from Makalu in eastern Nepal, he has seen how the absence of education closes doors and uses his platform to advocate for marginalized communities.

Founding CEO Karki has been named to the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list in Social Entrepreneurship and has received the WISE Young Leader distinction and the Prince of Wales & Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneurs Award.

Dr. Thapa chairs the board. As the founding managing partner of Global Equity Fund, he built Nepal's first licensed private equity and venture capital fund from scratch.

Agrawal is the co-owner of WorldLink, Nepal's largest internet service provider.

Bista, a senior clinical embryologist, comes from a family rooted in Nepal's education sector.

Christel House school will be a no-fee, trauma-informed, holistic education center that ensures poverty is not equated with limited potential. The school, which will be built in Dakshinkali, will offer free education to at least 1,500 Nepali children. The project aims to be completed by the end of 2028.

Nepal has made real progress in getting children into classrooms. But a seat is just the start; too many children never finish the journey, not because the school isn't there, but because of everything missing around it.

That gap is where Christel House Nepal began: a belief that children deserve more than access to a classroom. They deserve a reliable ecosystem around them that puts quality education at the heart of everything, the network said.

“Four different paths, one shared question: What does a child need to stay in school, to learn, and to finish? Not just a seat, but the health, the support, the reason to stay. What does that really cost, per child, per year, until they're ready for what comes next? Christel House Nepal is here to work on this.”