Chhahari Nepal for Mental Health ( CNMH) was initiated in 2003 as an informal group in Lalitpur (Kathmandu Valley District). It functioned as a project under the St. Xavier’s Social Service Centre in 2005 and collaborated with the Social Work Department at St.Xavier’s College.

In 2006,CNMH signed a memorandum of understanding with the "Basic Needs UK", an International mental health and development NGO, and established funding support from churches in Scotland.

Building on this and with the help and support of friends and well wishers, Chhahari Nepal has become an established part of the mental health network in Nepal. It has undertaken a range of activities that have contributed to the knowledge base and collaboration, amongst organisations working for mental health in Nepal.

We promote a 'holistic' approach that is process orientated and where a mentally distressed person’s right to self determination is respected. Our experiences evidence that: Mental illness, whether acute or chronic, carries vulnerability. Being excluded from family, community and society, a reality for mentally ill people on the street, exacerbates this. Poverty further worsens the plight of a mentally ill person