I am back in Nepal now, but my heart is still in New York and with the #HerStory team where 60 people from around the world came together to share stories, discuss ideas, bond, and create plans for our communities. It was a huge honor for me to be the HerStory Partnership coordinator for the second time for me. Meeting people like, Jennifer- HerStory Director and Ana – International Program Director of LitWorld, as well as the entire HerStory team gave me the feeling of coming back to family.
During the week-long program, we had a chance to meet girls and women from 10 different countries. Even though they came from different backgrounds and cultures, listening to their stories made us all realize that everyone has their own story of struggle and of hope. The spirit of the Summit was captured with words from Pam (Founder of LitWorld) of not being afraid to raise our voices as women and the motivational words of Kylie (Director of Global Glow) saying, HerStory is a platform for women to share their stories about being strong and confident.
As mentors, it was great for us (Bandana and I) to see our girls during the leadership and mentorship workshop listening to stories of leaders from around world and understanding the situation of girls around the world. We could see them being inspired to change the situation in our community by bringing the lessons from the HerStory summit. It was a great learning experience for all of us to be able to interact with leaders and girls from different communities.
Through these discussions, we started to build our own community action plan, which we will take back to Nepal so that we can empower more girls and women. We are so grateful to our friends from LitWorld and Global GLOW and our Rukmini family for providing this opportunity to us. We are also working with community leaders Sashi Sharma and Niroj Shrestha to make a strong community action plan. We believe that with the unity of the mentors, HerStory ambassadors, community leaders, and support from the HerStory family and Rukmini Foundation, we will be able to start making changes in our community towards girls and women empowerment.
During the summit, we also got a chance to see statue of liberty- a symbol of freedom and strength, something we want to share with other girls and women.
Prakriti
Learning about the challenges for girls, even in the US, I feel happy that LitClubs are helping girls all over the world, including the US. I hope that girls in places like Detroit and Mississippi also have opportunities that girls like I have. I was proud to speak about the great work done by the strong women in Nepal like Ms. Radha Poudel, an activist who is conducting a campaign for safe women reproductive health in Nepal. I too want to work for women empowerment, and I also want to help bring boys to support these causes as well.
Before coming to US to the summit, I had the feeling that women in other countries had a much easier life. After listening to the stories of girls from other parts of the world, including the US, I realized that it is not only Nepalese women who are suffering. Girls and women from the whole world are struggling for women empowerment, and I feel that the bonds created through the #HerStory Summit will help girls and women to achieve their dreams.
- Learning Mentorship and Creating Leaders - June 28, 2018
- LitClub Nepal Celebrates Stand Up for Girls 2017 - October 28, 2017
- LitCamp 2017 An Annual Festival of Empowerment - August 3, 2017
- LitClub Mentors Always Looking to Improve - May 25, 2017
- LitClub Members Share HerStory - April 28, 2017
