Team Members
| Dr. Christie Lai-Ming LAM (Co-Founder of “Future Village” & Research Director) |
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 Christie is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology in Osaka University, Japan. Her research interests center on the social and cultural aspects of contemporary global issues, particularly social poverty, health, human rights, environmental crisis and international development.
During the previous eight years, she has conducted extensive research work in Nepal which has focused on the local livelihoods of marginalized communities. Her PhD dissertation demonstrates the complex human-nature conflicts in respect to the relationships between displacement, poverty and cultural changes. Currently, her research projects focus on two aspects 1) welfare impacts of displacement on local communities and 2) cultural values of land. In 2004, she decided to translate the knowledge into practice in helping the poor. With a small amount of money (US$ 400), she established an NGO in Nepal name “Future Village’. The main objective of this project is to improve the livelihoods of Nepal’s rural population through better conservation, education, health care and agriculture. Within a few years, the locally-based project had succeeded in encouraging 100 village children to go to school, improving village education quality and provided access to drinking water. Local participation and empowerment are the two key strategies to reach the need of the poorest. |
| Mr. Dambar ADHIKARI (Co-Founder and Operation Director of “Future Village”) |
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 Dambar is the director of a travel agent in Nepal. Since 2004, he has been voluntarily in charge of daily operation of “Future Village”. Between 2003 to 2006, he involved certain poverty-related research projects as research assistant.
Being born in “Future Village”, he deeply understands the livelihood hardship of the rural poor. When he successfully completed his higher school, due to poverty, going further study for him was just a dream. He started to work as a porter in tourism when he was 17 years old. Carrying over 50 kg in Everest Base Camp was the hardest time in his life but he knows he is not the only one. Today, still many children from rural areas suffer education deprivation and their future is gloomy. Therefore with Christie, he decided to establish “Future Village” to help moving rural poor out of poverty. One of the top priorities of “Future Village” is to establish partnership relationship with locals to improve the quality of rural education including sponsoring kid schooling, supporting more full-time teacher and improving school facilities. |
| Mrs.Sarah O (Singapore Project Leader for Project 100 Homes) | ||
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Based in Singapore, Sarah is a payments professional with a global bank with more than 10 years of experience in the cards and unsecured lending business. Prior to this, Sarah was from the Fast Moving Consumer Group (FMCG) industry, working for companies like Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Sarah holds a Bachelor’s Degree (Honors) with a major in Mechanical Engineering from National University of Singapore. A passionate advocate in empowering education to women and children in less privileged communities, Sarah has been working with Future Village Nepal since 2012 to spearhead education with the long term vision of eradicating poverty through micro-financing. Together with Christie, Dambar and the kind support from Hong Kong and Singapore donors, she led a project to build a medical outpost in Katunje Ward 9 in Nov 2014 to provide basic medical amenities to the villagers. Post the April 2015 earthquake, together with 4 volunteers from Hong Kong, Sarah and her husband Alfian Michael Sharifuddin formed a relief mission team to distribute relief funds, food and medical supplies to the villagers in May 2015. As part of the post earthquake rehabilitation efforts to rebuild earthquake-resistant homes in Future Village Nepal, Sarah is the project leader in Singapore leading fund-raising projects and coordinating with organizations e.g. Nepalese Society of Singapore for Project 100 Homes (now named asBuild the Home; Build the Future 築。動未來). |
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| Dr. Saumik PAUL (Research Director) | ||
 Saumik Paul is an Assistant Professor of Economics at School of Economics, Nottingham University, Malaysia campus where he teaches on the current economic issues, development economics, advanced development economics and economic perspectives. He is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Economic Development and International Trade (CREDIT), University of Nottingham, a Research Affiliate at the Households in Conflict Network (HiCN). Prior to this he taught at the Osaka University, Japan. Dr. Paul worked at the World Bank and held positions in various universities in the USA. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Claremont University, USA and a Master’s in Economics from the JNU, India.Dr. Paul is interested in cross-disciplinary research, particularly in the research methodologies that combine Economics with Anthropology and Political Science to address the most pressing developmental issues of our time. He primarily uses survey data and impact assessment tools and his research topics span the fields of microeconomic development, political economy, welfare and labor economics. His past research has focused on the assessment of poverty and inequality in Cote d’Ivoire and India. He is also interested in questions about the informal sector, migration and displacement. He has studied how the informal sector responds to the trade liberalization and the welfare impact of the conservation-led displacement in Nepal. His current research looks at the consequences of political instability and civil war in sub-Saharan African countries.
To learn more about Saumik’s research, please click: https://sites.google.com/site/saumikresearch/ |
