Mangala Sharma

{{Short description|Bhutanese human and women's rights activist}}{{Infobox person

| name = Mangala Sharma

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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1969}}

| birth_place = Tsirang District, Bhutan

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| known_for = Winner of Ginetta Sagan Fund Award in 1997

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Mangala Sharma (born 1969{{cite book|last=Gold|first=Taro|title=The Tao of Mom: The Wisdom of Mothers from East to West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GS27dV8OoOoC&pg=PT113|date=5 February 2013|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|isbn=978-0-7407-8743-0|page=113}} in Tsirang, Bhutan) is a human and women's rights activist and the first winner of the Ginetta Sagan Fund Award in 1997.{{cite web|url=http://www.amnestyusa.org/about-us/grants-and-awards/ginetta-sagan-fund/ginetta-sagan-award-winners|title=Ginetta Sagan Award Winners|publisher=Amnesty International|accessdate=26 April 2014}} She was exiled from the country in March 1992{{Efn|Some sources say she fled with her husband and child in 1990{{cite book|last=Cahill|first=Kevin M.|title=A Framework for Survival: Health, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Assistance in Conflicts and Disasters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sn_VQ905pGcC&pg=PA58|year=1999|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-92235-7|page=58}}}} after being outspoken against the government's "One Nation, One People" policy and their discrimination against ethnic minorities, known as Lhotshampas.{{cite web|url=http://from-exile-to-resettlement.weebly.com/mangala-sharma2.html|title=Mangala Sharma|publisher=From Exile to Resettlement|accessdate=26 April 2014}} Since her exile, she has formed the Bhutanese Refugees Aid for Victims of Violence (BRAVE), a self-help organization dedicated to assisting affected refugees from Bhutan. BRAVE facilitates counseling and training in all eight of the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. In 1995 Sharma took some of the women refugees to Beijing, China to the International Women Conference. There she got help from the United States Government, the United Nations and the Australian Government.[http://from-exile-to-resettlement.weebly.com/mangala-sharma2.html Born in Bhutan and exiled]

Sharma was granted asylum and moved to the United States in 2000 and started working for the Refugee Women Network based in Georgia. She moved to Roseville, Minnesota in November 2007, where she started the Nirvana Center that assists resettled families.