Empower 400 Girls and Boys to be Leaders in Nepal

After wrapping up the School Leadership Program with a virtual graduation ceremony in March, our 2020 LEADers moved on to the next phases of the LEAD course ie. Advocacy Week, Professional Development Week, and Virtual Graduation.

LEAD Course’s advocacy week consists of in-depth advocacy skills training, where the LEADers learn and plan their advocacy projects. During the 2020 LEAD Course advocacy week, our LEADers spent a week understanding what advocacy means, examples of advocacy happening around Nepal and the global context and then designing their own projects. Towards the end of the advocacy week our LEADers, in groups of five, designed five projects; All gender matters, I bring change, Mind benders, Samanta and Uujagaran. 

During the final month of the Course, our LEADers participated in a full week of professional development training on topics such as resume writing, emotional intelligence, personal branding, how to write applications for college, future career and goals, how to face interviews, crucial conversations, negotiation, and networking. 

One of our LEADers shares, “I learned to form teams, learned about creative problem discovery, problem specification, root cause analysis, stakeholder sense-making, and collaborative ideation during the professional development week.” Lakshina, 2020 LEADer

After a year of learning and active engagement, our 28 LEADers graduated from the 2020 LEAD course via Zoom. LEADers, their parents, teachers, Women LEAD staff, the board members came together virtually to celebrate their accomplishments and growth. Each LEADer presented a brief speech or performance, and peer-nominated awards were distributed for the LEADer with awards such as most growth, most committed, and best role model.

One of our LEADer, Prerena, describes her LEAD course journey as“Women LEAD is a platform for me where I could share my thoughts and ideas without any fear, hesitation, and judgments. I met many inspiring people and friends who inspired and pushed me to be more confident and social throughout this journey. This course is very helpful for all girls like me who came from a rural area and want to bring changes in society. After this 12 months duration, I have found myself to be confident and bold, now I can challenge my comfort zone and raise my voice.”

Another LEADer, Kriti, shares, “The LEAD course journey was amazing. I am a completely different person now. I manage my time well and I don’t fear things.  Now I’ll never bully anyone and speak up when I see it happening to others too. I am no more a self-centered person and I think twice about the consequences of my actions. I have learned to accept myself and to always be myself.”

Thank you for continuing to support Women LEAD! We can't wait to introduce you to the next batch of LEADers as the next iteration of our LEAD Course begins next month.

Links:

• Check out Women LEAD's updated website

As a constituent of our year-long LEAD Course, our 2020 LEADers conducted the School Leadership Program (SLP) where they were paired together to co-lead weekly workshops for grade nine students over the period of three months.

Despite the pandemic, our LEADers conducted the SLP in 13 different schools with 193 young girls and boys where they spent 10 virtual sessions learning important skills like public speaking, teamwork, effective communication, and time management among others. They were also introduced to key topics like gender-based violence and civic engagement.

Through sessions like communication styles, goal setting, leadership, and followership, the participants gained the skills, knowledge, and inspiration they need to become the leaders of tomorrow. This is how one of the SLP Participants, Roji, describes the School Leadership Program – “SLP has been a positive turning point in my life as it has helped me boost my confidence, improve my communication skills and raise my self-esteem. Everyone in my family and friends have seen a lot of changes in me. Now, I am able to stand up for myself and what I believe in; I speak up when someone mistreats me and others. and all my thanks goes to the LEADers and Women LEAD Nepal.”

One of the main highlights of SLP was the virtual graduation ceremony where the participants were able to put the skills they had learned into practice by speaking to the audience with confidence and zeal. Even though the ceremony took place virtually, it was delightful to see the parents and teachers as the audience to celebrate our participant’s accomplishments. Following the footsteps of their role models, our 2020 LEADers, the young SLP participants took up the stage and spoke confidently about what they’ve learned and how much they’ve grown in the past four months. 

SLP Participant, Sumit, shares “SLP was a place where we got to know many things which are important in our future life as well as in the present. I have learned many things from SLP and I plan to implement them. I am very happy that I got a chance to be a part of SLP.”  

 The main aim of our SLP is to empower our LEADers to become role models for their juniors. One of our 2020 LEADer shares, “In these last 3 months we have seen these young boys and girls following direction, taking up challenges, overcoming fears, and spreading positivity. We are very proud of what they have achieved and honored to celebrate their successful journey.” Prerana, 2020 LEADer

Stay tuned for more updates from our 2020/21 LEAD Course in the upcoming months!

Links:

• Check out Women LEAD's updated website.