Our Founders

Maggie Doyne has dedicated her life to educating children and empowering women in Nepal. As a teenager from New Jersey, she visited Nepal and decided to build a life in Surkhet to help children. She believes that everyone has the power to change the world, in the blink of an eye! She is Co-founder and CEO of the BlinkNow Foundation and author of Between the Mountain and the Sky: A Mother’s Story of Love, Loss, Healing, and Hope. She and her husband and two biological children live with her adopted children in the Kopila Valley Children’s Home. Maggie’s work has been recognized by CNN Heroes, the Dalai Lama, Elizabeth Gilbert, Katie Couric, Forbes, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan of Sussex, and The New York Times Magazine.

Tope Bahadur Malla is the co-founder and chairman of Kopila Valley. After serving at Ramana’s Garden for over 15 years, a project for Nepali refugees in India, Tope made the decision to return to his birth country and found Kopila. Tope grew up in a small Himalayan village where he was orphaned at a young age. Kopila is his way of giving the children of his country the childhood he always dreamed of. As Maggie’s partner, Tope is responsible for the development, oversight, and management of Kopila Valley on the ground. He oversees a staff of over 50 people and is the key to making ideas become reality at Kopila. He now lives at the Kopila Valley project with his wife and son.