The People
Behind the Mission

Lila K. Chamlagai (he/him) is a Gates Millennium Scholar and a PhD candidate at Brown University School of Public Health, where his research focuses on mental health equity, health disparities, and culturally congruent Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBI-R) for refugee and immigrant populations.

Born and raised in a Bhutanese refugee camp in eastern Nepal, Lila spent almost 17 years in the camp before resettling with his family in Springfield, MA in 2011. That lived experience became the foundation of his life's work.

Before Brown, he served as a Community Advisory Board Member in CBPR with Dr. Theresa Betancourt's Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA) at Boston College School of Social Work, and has served on advisory boards at Harvard University.

Under his leadership, Helping Hands has grown from a grassroots initiative into a recognised 501(c)(3) nonprofit delivering life-changing health services across Nepal.