17th AGM of TPO Nepal

The 17th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of TPO Nepal was held at TPO Nepal premises on 27 August 2021 from 8:30 am to 10 am. A total of 40 participants, including the executive board, general members, management committee, and staff of TPO Nepal, participated in the meeting. It was conducted in-person as well as virtually for participants who could not attend. Dr. Mita Rana, Chairperson of TPO Nepal, chaired the meeting, which was facilitated by Pitambar Koirala, Head of Program at TPO Nepal.

After the formal seating and national anthem, a one-minute silence was observed to mark the passing away of TPO Nepal’s past staff Mr. Ramdhan Majhi. After this, General Secretary of TPO Nepal Mr. Ramesh Adhikari gave a welcome speech where he welcomed the participants and thanked them for participating in the meeting. Then, Dr. Mita Rana thanked all internal and external stakeholders who have been supporting TPO Nepal to become one of Nepal’s leading organizations in mental health in Nepal. She appealed for their support in the upcoming years as well.

Dr. Kamal Gautam, Executive Manager of TPO Nepal, then gave his presentation on the achievements of TPO Nepal for the year 2020/21 and plans for the year 2021/22. TPO Nepal reached more than 65000 people through research, service delivery, capacity building, and advocacy and awareness in 2020/21. Some major highlights of 2020/21 were the creation of a child-friendly space, quarantine and isolation center visits, translation of various global documents, orientation events on mental health and psychosocial, capacity building initiative, and national suicide helpline. Dr. Kamal also shared that TPO Nepal would focus on the following activities in FY 2021/22.: integration of mental health into the existing health system, child and adolescent mental health, digital technology and mental health, gender-based violence and anti-trafficking, stigma reduction, maternal mental health, and suicide prevention.

Then, Mr. Krishna Bahadur Karki, Treasurer of TPO Nepal, presented the financial report for 2077/78 and the estimated budget for the upcoming year 2078/79. Likewise, Mr. Suraj Koirala, Technical Advisor of TPO Nepal presented the current policies which have been revised as well as new policies which have been drafted as per the need of the organization. Mr. Nabin Lamichhane, Vice Chairperson of TPO Nepal, further clarified the policies and answered questions from the participants about the same.

The auction list and appointed auditor for the upcoming fiscal year were then passed by the board. Mr. Nagendra Prasad Luitel, Head of Research at TPO Nepal, was virtually felicitated during the event for completing his Ph.D. and getting a research fellowship from Wellcome Trust UK. Then the AGM was formally concluded by the chair of the meeting Dr. Mita Rana.