17 Years in a Refugee Camp. Now He Runs Pittsburgh’s Front Door for New Arrivals.

Khara Timsina, Co-Founder of BCAP

Photo courtesy of the Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh (bcapgh.org)

Khara Timsina spent 17 years in a Nepalese refugee camp after fleeing state persecution in Bhutan in 1992. When he finally resettled in Pittsburgh in late 2009, he set out to make that transition easier for the next arrivals — co-founding the Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh (BCAP) in 2010.

Fifteen years later, BCAP has grown into a six-person organization offering citizenship test preparation, immigration assistance, an after-school academy, computer-literacy classes, mental-health services, and civic-engagement support — not just for the Bhutanese-Nepali community, but for newer arrivals from Myanmar, Africa, and the Middle East. Timsina now also serves on city and county advisory councils shaping how the region welcomes immigrants.

Nearly two decades after his own resettlement, the man who once needed a helping hand has built one of Pittsburgh’s steadiest doors into a new life for thousands of others.