Ravi Kumar is the editor of YouThink!, the World Bank’s online space for youth to learn development topics, and a Co-Manager of Youth Innovation Fund. He is also a co-founder of Grassroot Movement in Nepal , a non-profit that rebuilds schools and launches/operates women empowerment programs in remote parts of Nepal. He has a Masters of Science degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. At Columbia he specialized in digital media and was a fellow at Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. You can connect with him on Twitter @ravinepal or Facebook: ravikumarnepal

As a 2010 Buena Vista University (BVU) alum and native of Nepal, Ravi Kumar started a non-profit organization in 2009 that has either built or renovated 16 different schools and sponsored 10 teachers in Nepal. His non-profit is called Grassroots Movement in Nepal (GMIN). There are branches of GMIN in four different countries around the world: the UK, Hong Kong, Finland, and Nepal. Kumar uses New York as its headquarters. 

Kumar and three of his colleagues in New York founded GMIN. Kumar’s role was to coin the name of the organization and write the mission statement. So how exactly does this organization operate in NYC but somehow make a difference on the opposite side of the globe? Money is raised and then used to build schools and empower women through education. GMIN also provides educational materials and teachers for the schools it builds. The other part of the goal is to increase the amount of girls in school and teach them skills which can help support them and their families. Volunteers in the U.S. can lobby to affect policies that would benefit Nepal by using the power of influence.

Kumar was born to Nepalese parents; his father never went to college, and his mother never even attended school. He personally has felt the effects of the lack of proper education in Nepal, and when he came to BVU, he was inspired by the will to give back.