Soni Joshi

Director

Soni identifies herself as a gender advocate, educationist and a social entrepreneur.

The past three decades have seen her active involvement in the field of Women and Children’s Development with a number of social development organizations.

She is a founder member of Zonta Club Kathmandu and since its inception has served as the Secretary and as the Chair for Advocacy, Leadership, Service and UN Committees. At present under Zonta International she is working as the United Nations Committee Chair of District 25 which encompasses Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

She also currently serves on the Board of SAATHI the pioneer NGO working on domestic violence and is also with Burn Violence Survivors (BVS) – Nepal which works for and with burns survivors. Soni is a Past President of ASMAN (Association of St. Mary’s Alumnae) in Nepal. She is the first Nepali woman to become President of Active Women of Nepal (AWON) formerly known as the American Women of Nepal.

She has been actively involved with United Nation’s Women’s Organization (UNWO) of Nepal in a myriad of roles. She has served as the Past President of CHETANA (Center for Health, Education, Training and National Advocacy) which has as its special focus the plight of the differently abled women and girl child. In her role as a Board Director of many educational institutions (both primary levels to higher level education) she is amongst a group working to bring about a change to the conventional method of teaching in the country. She is a strong advocate for the education of the girl child.

She has been awarded with the Women Leadership Achievement Award by the World Women Leadership Congress Awards in February 2015 and the Women Super Achiever Award in February 2017. She has recently been included as the Country Patron for Nepal of World Women Leadership Congress.