By Suprasanna Aryal

“When I first found out that this time Mini Learning Institute (MiLI) was going to be based on the theme ‘Being Political’, I was very skeptic if it would be interesting at all,” shared Binita Subedi, a First Cohort TFN Fellow. As many other youth of her age, she never really had concerns over political matters initially; until November 7, 2015.

The recent Teach For Nepal’s Mini Learning Institute (MiLI), a three-day event held every three months to bring together all the TFN Fellows for enhancing their personal and professional growth, was quite different. The program that kicked off on Friday (November 7) was focused not only on aspects concerning daily classroom activities and community development for the Fellows, but also on the burning political issue of Nepal; Madhesh Aandolan.

Speakers from diverse backgrounds were invited, who shed light on different aspects of ongoing Madhesh movement.   

Tula Narayan Shah, a researcher at Nepal Madhes Foundation, spoke about various rights Madheshis are currently deprived of, and their demands for addressing those issues. Citizenship provisions, division of state provinces and representation of Madheshis on the governing body of Nepal were the major issues he highlighted on.

On the contrary, experts of contemporary politics and political history of Nepal, namely Ameet Dhakal, Chief Editor at Setopati, an online news portal,  and Kiran Nepal, Editor at Himal Weekly, expressed their views and understandings of why these demands aren’t being fulfilled and the conflict hasn’t been solved, even after about 80 days of severe disputes in Terai.    

“I have been emphasizing on the fact that it is high time Nepalese youth start showing interests and concerns on the country’s political issues. Informed youth who are capable of analyzing the political scenario are what we exactly need for Nepal’s betterment,” remarked another speaker Rabindra Mishra, Nepal Chief of BBC. He added that being political doesn’t mean one has to join a political party, it just means being politically aware and sharing their unbiased knowledge with others.

In addition to the core theme on contemporary political issues, MiLI also incorporated other activities such as ‘Building a Fellowship Portfolio’ for the First Cohort, ‘Discussion on the book titled True North’ for Second Cohort and ‘Addressing Learning Differences’ for Third Cohort led by Co-founder and Director of Training Swastika Shrestha, Co-founder and CEO Shisir Khanal and Leadership Development Manager (LDM) Amrit Bahadur Poudel respectively.

For experiential learning, third day incorporated four different simultaneous sessions on different themes, ‘Design for Change’ led by Shisir Khanal and LDM Laxmi KC; ‘Sports as a common ground’ facilitated by Swastika Shrestha, Placement Coordinator Prajwal Khadka, and LDM Jalan Maharjan; ‘Theater for Change’ directed by LDM Bijay Mani Paudel and ‘Retelling History’ led by LDM Prabin Raj Niraula. The Fellows had signed up for one of these sessions.

Milan Kumar Sardar Tharu, a Third Cohort Fellow who had signed up for the theater session shared, “I love acting and have performed many times in different programs before. This session has helped me a lot. I will be taking drama  to my classrooms as well”. All the sessions required a lot of team work. The fellows not only enjoyed them but also took lots of learning for their classrooms.

The event ended with a heart-touching theater performance by the Fellows who had signed up for the theater session. 

Suprasanna Aryal is the Communications Associate at Teach For Nepal.