The idea of a spinal injury rehabilitation centre emerged after Kanak Mani Dixit, editor and publisher, fell down a cliff-side and suffered from a spinal cord injury while trekking around the Annapurna Region in August 2000. Fortunately, he managed to recover completely over the course of the next year.

Dixit's experience exposed him to the severe lack of facilities available to the spinally injured in Nepal. Thus, in late 2000, he along with a few friends and colleagues came together to start the Spinal Injury Sangha, a non-profit organization registered with the Social Welfare Council of Nepal (Regd. No. 15354). Of the many challenges that needed to be addressed in responding to spinal injury in Nepal, the Sangha felt that a rehabilitation facility was most urgent. The Sangha's objective was to roll back, as far as possible, the despair that is the burden of the spinally injured and their families.

Consequently, the Sangha founded the Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre in a converted facility in Jorpati, Katmandu, in collaboration with the Nepal Disabled Association. The Centre was inaugurated on April 7, 2002 by the late Sir Edmund Hillary, who at the time of the inauguration stated: " From my work in the Solu Khumbu region, I know that this kind of facility is extremely important for this country. The hill people who injure their backs as a result of fall from trees, trails and hillside require a rehabilitation centre such as this."