Empower young women in Nepal to be leader in tech

Women Leaders in Technology (WLiT) completed the WLiT Fellowship Pokhara 2025, our annual flagship program in Pokhara, Gandaki Province. 

The WLiT Fellowship program is an annual technical and leadership program for young women studying computer science, to enable them to be the leaders and innovators through capacity building, advocacies, and building supporting ecosystem.

The program specifically designed and implemented for the region, with the objective to bring more young women into tech, help them attain leadership positions in personal and professional endeavors, and use that knowledge and influence to ensure the technology sector is gender inclusive, equitable, and used for positive causes. 15 young female tech students were selected for this 3rd cohort of fellowship in Kaski, through an open call, application and interviews. The selection process engaged WLiT Alumni from previous fellowship in Pokhara.

The program took a hybrid model, with part of the learning session happening online. Online sessions were held from May 13 to 15, and were held for 4 hrs each day to manage the screen time. During the 10 days bootcamp, they were trained on leadership skills alongside technical training, at the end of which they built a product prototype solving an issue close to them in the form of a website/app. Over the next 6 months, they received mentorship with program alumni or a tech professional. Many kickstarted their tech career with an internship/traineeship at a partner company.

This year, the fellowship reached students across multiple schools in Gandaki Province, with the majority of sessions conducted in Kaski district.  Sessions were conducted in 13 schools, including 11 public schools, 1 community school, and 1 public educational trust school. In total, the fellows reached 520 students across all sessions. Among them, 263 were boys and 257 were girls. Sessions were primarily conducted for grades 8 to 12, with most participants in grades 8 to 9.

During this entire fellowship, many of the alumni from previous fellowship from the region got engaged and at times led parts of the program, facilitated sessions.

The graduation ceremony for the WLiT Fellowship 2025 Pokhara was held on Saturday, October 18, 2025, at the Science Lab of Pritivi Narayan Campus, Bagar, Pokhara. The program was attended by 30 people, including all 15 graduating fellows, their mentors, past alumni from Pokhara, company representatives, and government officials. The program marked the end of the 3rd cohort of the Pokhara fellowship, with the certificate distributions, experience sharing from fellows, and remarks from other attendees.

The alumni of the program go on to become part of the larger community also engaging in conversations such as gender equality in tech, feminist technology and inclusive workplace, etc. They even join WLiT as the mentors, facilitators, curriculum developers, etc in a few years of being in the community. The collective cadre of young women in tech thus create more space for upcoming women in technology and advocate for feminist technological principles