BNCC Mission Statement:

To Serve community members with culturally appropriate social services and empower them through education and advocacy.

The Bhutanese Nepali Community of Columbus (BNCC) is a community-based non-profit organization founded in 2009. BNCC offers post-resettlement services to recently arrived refugees from Bhutan and a small number from Pakistan. Majority of our clients get the referral from resettlement agencies like Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), Us Together, and World Relief as well as from Franklin County office of Job and family services, other social service agencies, local schools, and hospitals.

BNCC primarily focus on long-term case management services to assist families to connect with resources. And also it aims to provide a pathway for better integrate and adaption to their new homes. For which BNCC helps its members with employment, ESL classes, citizenship class, applying for naturalization, green card application, legal help, along with health and wellness programs like mobile health clinics, youth development and leadership and community forums. These projects encompass various program based activities including training, seminars, events and community engagement and social interactions. BNCC strives to meet these goals through need-based community development programs.

                                             Brief Background

The Nepali-speaking Bhutanese became the victims of the ethnic cleansing policy of the eighties in Bhutan. Bhutan introduced “one nation one people” policy in 1985 which completely undermined the cultural, religious, and linguistic heritage of the people of the south who are minority Hindus in a majority Buddhist nation. Over one hundred thousand people were forcefully expelled who were deemed unworthy under the new policy from the land where they have spent more than five generations.  

After spending about two decades in the UN refugee camps in eastern Nepal, the only option out of repartition and assimilation, third country resettlement process started in 2008. So far nearly 90 thousand have been in resettled in the United States, including Canada and six other nations with a share of over 15 thousand.

Although in the beginning people were resettled in different States and Cities, through internal migration (secondary and tertiary), Columbus now has the highest Bhutanese population anywhere outside Bhutan. There is a steady growth and it is projected to reach 30 thousand in the next five years. Currently, the Ohio State University estimates 23,437 Bhutanese-Nepali in central Ohio.