Namaste ! I am Dhurba Giri. I was born on May 17, 1977. I am the Founder of Sapana village that borders the Chitwan National Park – homeland of indigenous Tharu people and enormous wild animals. Chitwan has been a tourist destination area for many years.  I have been working in the tourism industry since I was a teenager. At the age of 12, I started working as a waiter at a restaurant in Sauraha.  I was a student while working but I left school to give myself more time for tourism as well as social works to help poor people.

I met Judit and Herman from Holland, when I was 19; I shared my dream with them. I was delighted to receive encouragement from them and they helped me to initiate my own small business financially. Then with my own concept, I ran Hotel Riverside for four years before I started Sapana Village in 2005. It has always been my dream to make life better for the people in my community and I believe that when you have a dream, it can come true. Sapana means dream in Nepali and by founding Sapana Village and sharing the profit with my community I made my own dream come true.

I gave the name Sapana to my hotel and now Sapana Village – an Umbrella Organization that is now supporting many projects. At present, we run many community projects through our own organization – Sapana Village Social Impact (SVSI). One of the most important projects we  have  is the Sapana school .  We are making our children’s dreams come true by giving the children of the Chitwan region a solid education.

I have many more dreams for the future, like building a medical clinic and a community house for elderly people, a retirement center for elephants and I am confident that we can fulfill those dreams in the future. I hope to inspire people, both locally and internationally to work with us to make these dreams come true. If you are interested in my story, I welcome the opportunity to speak with you. Dhurba Giri.