" I do not know how this idea of mentoring young women came about, but it is not an official aid programme but rather a pro-bono initiative of successful women in high position and with an international experience "
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 1
Please meet Barsha, Sharanya and Poonam.
They are young professional women who have several things in common, despite their different backgrounds and histories.
They have positive, grounded ambition, they want to achieve great goals and, most importantly, they want to change Nepal for the better.
Barsha is the co-founder of Lokopakar, a youth development organisation, Sharanya is a programme manager at Atoot, a social organisation promoting girls' development through sports while Poonam is the co-founder of Sattva Nepal, a company promoting natural food items.
They also have something else in common. They were part of the first cohort of the Leadership Mentorship Programme facilitated by the UK Embassy in collaboration with several embassies and international agencies in Nepal.
It is a unique programme because the mentors are the country level leaders of these agencies, ambassadors, head of agencies and development programmes that happen to be all female. In short, it is a powerful women to women initiative and is transformative.
Building on the first experience, the second edition will start in 2023.
I had the chance to get in touch with Barsha, Sharanya and Poonam, and all of them were enthusiastic about the programme, and how it gave a boost to their career, in terms of gained self-confidence, technical skills and the networking they acquired through their respective mentors.
Barsha proudly shared that she is the first woman in her entire village going to college, where she is currently pursuing a master in sociology. Her mentor was Sepideh Keyvanshad, the Mission Director of USAID, and she recalled saying what she had told her: "We are not in a mentor-mentee relationship, but in a mutual mentorship programme, we learn from each other equally."
We are talking about a programme that is not only beneficial to the mentees but also to an initiative that can be extremely useful for the mentors who have firsthand opportunity to know not only promising and high potential citizens of this country but also a platform that can help them better understand the complex realities of Nepal.
Sharanya and her colleagues at Atoot love leveraging sports, especially soccer, to promote positive changes in young women in the Tarai. So it was a delight to have Nicola Pollitt, the British Ambassador to Nepal and Sharanya's mentor, visit the programme.
"It was absolutely thrilling to have a chance to show her the work we do using football for development with our girls," explains Sharanya.
Likewise, Poonam had an amazing experience with the EU Ambassador to Nepal, Nona Deprez.
"Sometimes, especially as women, we need someone to validate our thoughts and tell us that we are capable of more than what we think. That is what my mentor Her Excellency Nona Deprez did for me," Poonam elaborates.
She further shared: "When I joined the mentorship programme, I was really unsure of my capability of starting an organisation, let alone leading it. With her unfailing support, guidance and mentorship on both personal and professional fronts, my idea took the shape of my company, Sattva Nepal, and now through that I am creating employment opportunities for empowering more women. I feel this mentorship has given me more than I could ask for."
I do not know how this idea of mentoring young women came about, but it is not an official aid programme but rather a probono initiative of successful women in high position and with an international experience who want to personally do something to nourish a generation of new female leadership.
All of us know how much the country is in need of persons like Barsha, Sharanya and Poonam and her other mentees who were paired up with other key leaders like the Swiss Ambassador to Nepal, the UNDP Country Director, the Head of the British Council, among others.
"What I have really enjoyed is having had the opportunity to meet all these powerful, strong women and see them as just that – women," Sharanya explains.
She continues, "We (the other mentees and I) had the unique chance of spending time with these powerhouse women away from their official personas, where they would share their successes and challenges as 'normal people', and that is something that really stuck with me."
Thanks to the programme, a start up like Sattava Nepal is now working with almost 30 women, and Poonam's goal is to bring Nepali flavours on the global gastronomy map while empowering the women and farmer communities.Barsha's goal is equally transformational as she wants "to create a support platform for students, especially girls of public schools in Nepal". Atoot is also getting bigger and more and more structured to reach out to more and more young people through the power of sports and leadership.
One of the outcomes of the first edition of this mentorship and leadership programme is having formed a united group of change makers. Those who write like me often abused this term, change-makers, but if you look at the stories and goals of these three already successful young women, they are really changing the status quo and now they have new friends to support each other.
Sharanya could not explain this better:
"Another true highlight from this experience for me has been our mentee group - the eight of us. I would never have met these other driven, passionate, lovely change-makers if not for this programme. I feel like we are a tribe, a sisterhood and their support is something that I will carry away from this experience and which will stay with us forever (and I know the other 7 would agree with me!)."
The programme was so successful that a new edition is approaching soon. What I can say for sure is that besides the eight international mentors, Nepal found eight new potential mentors who are ready to give back. The country's youths, including males among them, are desperate for guidance and what I call "good leadership".
Galimberti is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE and promotes positive leadership opportunities for young people.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 2, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
