About Us

Meet The Team

All of our trustees are honorary appointments and the charity has no premises or fixed overheads. Additionally, the management committee of Manisha UK ensure funds raised are focused directly on helping the poor rural community schools in Nepal.

So, if you fund raise or donate to Manisha UK you can be assured that we keep our administration costs to an absolute minimum. Our target is that 99% of all monies raised are spent on improving the lives of these poor rural communities.

Our Thanks To All Who Have Helped Us Along The Way!

Anyone who has worked in a charity, or any voluntary group, will know that nothing stays still for long and that different people step forward to fill identified needs at particular points in time. Whilst it is important that we recognise the great achievements of the team on this website, it is a fact of life that individuals in the team come and go. Therefore, it is also appropriate that we recognise the individuals who have put themselves forward throughout the life of our charity to deliver on our objectives to improve the lives of the children and schools we support. 

Importantly, we must remember those who made the first moves to answer the question posed by former Nepalese Gurkha soldier, Mahendra Shakya, whilst visiting a UK school: "Why can't my daughter be taught in a school like this?" Shortly after this, in 2008, Steve Tonry founded a fund-raising group called Manisha Child Welfare Foundation, Nepal (UK) with like-minded individuals Christine Musson, Will Thomas and Bernie Swift. The group's name reflected Mahendra's daughter's name, Manisha.

In 2010, and with local support for the cause growing, Steve again took the lead in successfully registering the group as a charity, supported by an expanded group of trustees who by then also included Sue Hearn, Andy & Izzy Langman, Sophie Langman and Jenny & Simon Loh who, together with Steve, Christine, Will and Bernie, brought an incredibly wide range of skills and experience to the charity. 

During our formative years, several trustees moved on due to work/family commitments, but we were very fortunate to gain the educational skills of Barbara Bond and then Alan Hewitt who, through Will's organisational planning skills, helped us develop a sharper focus on the need for, and means of delivering, improved teacher training, school building and healthcare programmes.  Although not an official trustee, Alan's wife, Elaine, also assisted with delivering teacher training in Nepal.

In 2013/14, and having changed our name to Manisha UK, we partnered with Worcester University to utilise the skills of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs), who we sponsored for extended periods to deliver a broad range of our training and building activities in Nepal. Over the years, this NQT route laid the foundations of our work and led to Dan Wichmann, Johnny Halls, Andy Bridges and Hannah Detheridge becoming trustees as others moved on or, in the case of Alan, sadly passed away through cancer. 

In 2019, after more than a decade of service, Steve decided to step down both from his role as Chair and also the charity. First Johnny and now Barbara have stepped up to the role of Chair as we continue to deliver on our commitments. In 2024, Dan also decided to move on for personal reasons, leaving behind a huge legacy of implementing many of our projects whilst based full time in Nepal. 

This is the but the briefest of summaries of the history of our charity and its evolving team of trustees. Our heartfelt thanks go to all who have touched, delivered and improved the charity and, in their own way, made a huge difference to the lives of thousands of children in the rural communities of Nepal that we support. Without any one of them, we would not be where we are today.