Maggie Doyne

After Maggie Doyne’s senior year of high school, the 18 year old boarded a plane and set off to see the world. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, she found herself trekking through the Himalaya and walking along the dirt roads of Nepal’s most poverty-stricken villages. It was here that Doyne met a 6-year-old girl who was breaking stones in a dry riverbed and selling them to earn a few dollars to feed her family. Shocked by what she saw, Doyne bought a small piece of land with her savings and built a home for orphaned children. The Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School soon blossomed into BlinkNow, a nonprofit foundation serving an ever-growing community in Surkhet, Nepal. Doyne is now the mom and legal guardian to 50 children, and her mission is to change the world by empowering Nepal's youth. She won the CNN Hero of the Year Award in November 2015. She is the subject of Between the Mountain and the Sky, having its World Premiere at Mountainfilm 2024.