Our trustees

 

The Friends of Jamarko and EPHC's founding trustees are:

Emily Norton (Chair)

Emily’s involvement with EPHC and Jamarko started in 2006 when her two sons visited Nepal on a trip organised by Lewisham Scouts.   She has maintained contact ever since and started sponsoring EPHC children in 2007.

In 2011 Emily’s daughter volunteered at EPHC and in 2019 Emily visited Nepal with her now adult children.  Whilst in Kathmandu Emily visited EPHC and the Jamarko women’s project where she met Kamal Hari Pokhrel, EPHC and Jamarko staff and some of the sponsored children.  Since then, Emily has worked with Kamal and other supporters in the UK to support the sponsorship scheme and ensure it continues through the formation of the new UK charity, Friends of Jamarko and EPHC.

Andrew Potter (Treasurer)

Andrew is a qualified accountant who worked in a large industrial organisation for over 30 years before taking early retirement.  Since then, he has undertaken consulting work and led training courses.

Andrew has long held an interest in Nepal and became involved with EPHC and Jamarko over 15 years ago when he fulfilled a major item on his bucket list, trekking to Annapurna base camp.  Since then, Andrew has sponsored a child and remained in regular contact with Pradip about setting up the UK charity, providing funds through EPHC and Jamarko for earthquake relief and for a school building project.  In working on these projects, it became clear how much more effective working with small local organisations, as opposed to major aid organisations, can be in getting best value from donations over a longer period.

Andrew is extremely pleased to continue working to ensure that all the work undertaken by EPHC and Jamarko not only continues but goes from strength to strength.

Margaret (Maggie) Owen

Maggie’s first tea house trek in Nepal in 1981 kindled her interest in international development and Nepal and so, after a career break for travel and family, she was glad to have a chance to work for Ashoka UK Trust – an affiliate of the US based foundation which led the way in identifying and supporting social entrepreneurs world-wide.  This made quite a change from her early career in information and industrial relations journalism and led on to a long engagement with the UK charity Disability and Development Partners – working with organisations of and for disabled people in developing countries.

Maggie’s role with DDP evolved to include major donor liaison, project development, implementation and monitoring as well as all aspects of the general and financial administration and governance of the charity.  Throughout, she has also been an active supporter of DDP’s local partners and projects to support inclusive education and livelihood opportunities, especially in Nepal, and hopes to resume visits very soon.

Maggie is also a trustee of Disability and Development Partners, Reg charity 1046001 (since April 2021)