Deepak Vinayak OAM JP is a committed community contributor with more than 24 years’ experience leading social projects in the multicultural, multi-faith and regional communities in Australia. He has actively engaged with newly arrived migrants and has helped them settle through language support and career guidance.
Being in the public eye has given Deepak the opportunity to serve his fellow citizens and to stand by his people in difficult times. He has taken on initiatives such as developing platforms to bring young people together on challenges such as social cohesion, multiculturalism and having active leadership roles in their own communities to strengthen belonging and good citizenship.
Deepak has mentored students and researchers from leading Victorian universities, including those who have undertaken internships or research projects with him from Monash, Victoria, Deakin and La Trobe universities. He has worked to strengthen the community’s ability to respond to violence, gender equality and youth empowerment through active participation and engagement with government, police, media and broader Australian communities.
His journey to Australia and his story – the struggles, failures, successes and everything in between – are the most powerful part of who he is. According to Deepak, whether we are born here, migrate or seek refuge here, there’s a place for us all.
Dr Raju Adhikari is working as a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Manufacturing Flagship and holds an Adjunct A/Professor position at RMIT University. Since migrating to Australia in 1995, he has been in the forefront of his professional career and communities work.
He has received CSIRO medal along with several other awards and contributed significantly to technology and development through two spin-off biomedical companies as one of the inventor. Likewise he has held numerous positions on communities like Founder Presidents of Nepali Association of Victoria (NAV) and Help Nepal Network Australia, HeNN-Australia, Founder Chair of NRNA International Coordination Council (ICC) global Skill Knowledge and Innovation (SKI) Committee, Member, Open University Nepal Initiatives (OUNI) Development Board, Ministry of Education (MoE), Chair, NRNA’s ICC Nepal Science Foundation (NSF) Trust and currently as president of South Asian Community Link Group (SACLG)-Australasia. He has received several community awards and is a well-known for his outstanding community works Australia wide. Dr Adhikari is a strong believer and advocate of multiculturalism and believes science needs to be the basis and foundation to drive philanthropy; economic and social prosperity of any country and Victoria is the best place in the world to live and make contributions on all fronts.
Hari Pandey is a professional Telecommunication Engineer & aspiring entrepreneur with wealth of knowledge in Telecommunication networks, IT infrastructure and Project Management. He works as a Senior Engineer at Telstra Corporation Ltd. He holds Masters degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Latrobe University.
He is a strong advocate of science, technology and innovation and is involved with IN2 SCIENCE MENTORING Program to illustrate the importance of science and technology to secondary level students in Victoria.
Hari migrated to Australia from Nepal in 2004 and ever since has been involved with number of community organisations. He served as an Executive member/Media coordinator for Nepalese Association of Victoria (NAV 2007- 2011). He has been part of Help Nepal Network Australia (HeNNA), Non Resident Nepalese Australia (NRNA) Skill Knowledge and Innovation (SKI) team to share skill/knowledge to least developed countries like Nepal. He is a coordinator of Society of Nepalese Engineers in Victoria (SNEVic) and heavily involved in supporting migrant and new engineers with their work, life and career challenges.
He is a strong believer in Multicultural Australia and actively working to bring communities together where they can collaborate to resolve common challenges. He likes to engage with local communities and encourage them to play active role to voice their issues and ideas.
He loves to read books, play soccer and cheers for his Bombers “Essendon Club” in his spare time.
Niru Tripathi is a professional journalist who has specialised in various realms such as; women and gender equality, social and community development, media and literature, and professional organization communication.
She has been associated with some community organisations in Australia and Nepal. Currently Ms. Tripathi is an Editor at Nepali Times Melbourne (NTM), a Co-publication of Nepali Times Australia (NTA). She has been regarded as a youngest and first women Editor of Nepali print media in Australia. She has experience of working as a reporter for the number of media in Nepal. She has studied Master of Professional and Organizational Communication from Victoria University, Melbourne.
She was appointed as a brand ambassador for SERENDIP award initiated by Sri Lankan community in Victoria. She has been commended as a volunteer supporter for the interactive forum on south Asia’s multi-faith and multiculturalism by south Asian community link group Australasia (SACLG).
She has been honoured with various awards in Nepal from the organizations such as; Sadhana kala Kendra, Media Collection Pvt Ltd, Everest Toastmasters Nepal etc.
She is a long standing contributor and commentator to various newspapers, digital news services, Radio, television and Print media outlets in Nepal and Australia. Her interests are in Drama teaching, literature (poem, novel and play) writing.