Dr. Lok Bahadur Lopchan (48) was born and raised in Kavrepalanchok. It was a challenge for his parents to educate him and his siblings, but he managed to complete school and started to earn a living by working as a teacher and continued his education. Within 10 years he became district education officer in Panchthar. He has embodied values of integrity and ensured that no student was deprived of a quality education because of mismanagement or carelessness by teachers. Recently he was appointed as Chief of Mother-tongue Education Section. In this role, he was able to preserve and promote the Kusunda language which was on the verge of extinction as there was only one known person alive who spoke it. He personally went to search for the person and found that she was working as a daily wage earner in a brick kiln. He then helped improve her wellbeing by securing proper housing for her and increasing her monetary incentive. The language was then taught to others and to the people of the Kusunda community. Lopchan meanwhile also documented the language to preserve it. Lopchan believes that language is identity and that losing a language equates to losing one’s identity. He easily relates to people who choose not to speak their native language as at some point in his life, he was humiliated and insulted for speaking his mother tongue. So he encourages, advocates and campaigns for people to be allowed to learn and speak their mother tongue at school, believing that this should be done based on ethnic minorities. He has approached the Kathmandu Metropolitan City to prioritize teaching in the Tamang language and not in Newar language in places like Boudha where the majority of people are Tamang.