Core Team
ICPD30
Sangeet Kayastha
Nepal/Thailand
Sangeet Kayastha is a Bangkok-based Nepalese activist working in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights for more than 14 years. He holds a master’s degree in development studies and a bachelors in social work. With experience from the grassroots to international organizations, he offers expertise in peer education, humanitarian contexts, and gender issues to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights for adolescents and youth.
He is currently Coordinator of Y-PEER (Youth Peer Education Network) Asia Pacific Center in Bangkok, Thailand, and has worked with the United Nations Youth Advisory Panel, Amnesty International, and the Interagency Task Team on Young Key Populations. Mr. Kayastha also offers experience working with United Nations agencies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, groups and individual activists as an organizer of advocacy events, conferences, dialogues and activities related to sexual and reproductive health and rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. To advance the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), in 2019 he served as Coordinator of the Asia-Pacific ICPD25 Regional Youth Consultation and was a speaker at the Nairobi Summit for the session “A feminist approach to humanitarian action”. He was an organizing core member of the Midterm Review of the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development as part of the APPC Youth Forum at the 2018 Asian and Pacific Population Conference; facilitator and speaker for ICPD Review Bali Global Youth Forum; and a facilitator for Post- ICPD and ICPD consultations.
Pema Choden
Bhutan
Pema Choden is currently working as a Research Assistant at the Himalayan Center of Environmental Humanities in Royal Thimphu College, Bhutan. She completed her bachelors of degree in Anthropology in 2021 and joined the Accelerator Lab, Innovation Unit at the United Nations Development Programme Bhutan Country Office as a youth engagement intern. Pema was the part of the team who developed the first National Ecourse on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Gender-based violence supported by DYS and UNFPA Bhutan. She continuous to promote SRHR in various social spheres including institutions and recreational centers. She has been leading numerous activities on ICPD after her participation in the Nairobi Summit/ ICPD25 in 2019.
Bui Y Nhi
Vetnam
Bui Y Nhi is a final-year law student in Vietnam and an intern at YPEER Asia Pacific Center. She has been the co-founder of a social project called “Cham Project” since 2019. Until now, she and other team members are still active with events and programs related to people with disabilities in Vietnam, such as raising their awareness of gender equality and gender-based violence; training to improve their understanding of sexual and reproductive health rights, organising psychological consultation events for people with disabilities affected by the covid-19 pandemic. Besides, she has been a member of the Youth Advisory Committee at Plan International Vietnam since 2020. She has participated in activities to promote gender equality through conducting research with Indonesian and Australian young leaders, developing training programs for ethnic minorities, and meeting with the Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam to call for the signing of an open letter to ensure online safety for girls and other related activities. She also participates in other social projects and organisations related to orphans, children with disabilities, and children with difficult circumstances in Vietnam (raising funds, organising extracurricular activities, and teaching English/Maths).
Awnu Shrestha
Nepal
Ms Anju Shrestha (Awnu) is an SRHR and Disability Activist and the Co-founder of Disabilties2030 (Working Group On Disabilities & 2030 Agenda) as well as co-founder of M4M Campaign (Me for Myself International Campaign on Mental Health). She had been involved in the sector of SRHR and Development sector for more than eight years, being engaged in SRHR and disability and the sector of Humanitarian and Youth Peace and Security at National, Regional and International Levels. She has experience working and getting involved in various platforms, including Global Forum on Youth Peace and Security, ICPD 25 Asia Pacific Regional Platform, Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development Goal (APFSD), Asia Pacific Population Conference (APPC), and many others. For the last four years, her focus has been on Mental Health, and CSE Out of School focusing on Young People with Disabilities. Her remarkable works are to launch the Online Regional Course on Mental Health, CSE out of school Manual on Peer Education focusing on Young People with Disabilities (deaf) and organizing face to face training on peer education for Deaf Young People in different countries.
Ayeshwini Lama
Bhutan
Ayeshwini Lama is a youth specialist on sexual and reproductive health and rights. She has organised and facilitated numerous national, as well as regional training and events. With a special interest in mental health, gender and social change, she has co-founded youth-led initiatives such as the Me for Myself regional campaign for mental health and wellbeing, the Live Now regional campaign for positivity sharing, and the Bhutanese storytelling platform Humans of Thimphu. She is a part of ICPD25 youth and took part in the regional ICPD25 youth consultation in 2019.
She believes that with proper education and advocacy on gender and sexuality, every young person in Bhutan can be well-equipped to live a healthy life and contribute to an overall healthy population.
Fura Gelzen sherpa
Nepal
Mr. Fura Gelzen Sherpa served as a National Coordinator of Y-PEER Nepal between 2018 and 2020. Having a background in tourism and the youth sector, he had been working actively to promote SRHR, youth participation & SDGs in Nepal. He was also one of the core members of ‘Me for Myself 2020 Regional Mental Health Campaign for Youths’ and also worked as a project lead for Erasmus plus program. In the last few years, he had mostly been working on ICPD25 as a regional youth advocate and also represented ethnic communities at National to International levels. He is working for the betterment of youth sexual reproductive health and rights as well as mental health mostly focusing on young people working in the tourism industry of Nepal.