I was born and brought up in Kathmandu. As a kid, I was timid and barely talked to new people. Although I was shy, I had a big dream of becoming a lawyer. I liked how lawyers argued in movies, and the best part was when the victims would get justice. I wanted to do something to help people in need. Singlehandedly, I was able to begin a campaign called ‘Wall of Kindness’ where homeless kids could come and get their choice of clothes – this I consider to be the biggest achievement in my life. My parents used to get continuously criticised for having a single child and that too a girl. But they fought for me and came out of the joint family only for my better future. I realised how hard life is when I moved to India for my further studies. I had to go to unknown cities for internships, find a roof, manage everyday life and live alone. I had my parents to support me, but one thing that bothered me was the thought of many others who were living a life harder than mine. I joined TF…

While I initially dreamt of being a doctor and serving the society, my idea of the means to serving the society has changed over time. I now want to work for children as a teacher as I know how lack of information and knowledge can affect the goals we set in our lives and the chances of our achieving them. I see myself a kind-hearted, honest and social person. For me, happiness is to succeed at work and make my family feel proud. My hobbies are walking in the morning in the garden, reading and writing, music, children, and travelling to new and different places. I have worked as a Social Mobilizer in the past and served in different community level programs. While working for one organization, I had to give awareness classes to girls in rural Terai. It was about the importance of education, but there were very few students who used to attend school. I went and did counselling with the parents and tried my best to bring the girls to school. It was very difficult to convince them…

My name is Prajwal Khadka and I’m from Kathmandu. I did my schooling from Daffodil Public School. My schooldays were the best days of my life. Most of us had studied there since nursery, and we all knew each other and the teachers. Later on, though, teachers started discriminating by separating the ‘above average’ and ‘average/mediocre’ students into two groups. Teachers would tell those of us in the second group that we were just wasting our parents’ money. I feel proud of studying in Daffodil, even though I think there was a better way to motivate us. I ended up studying social work because I thought – let’s do something new. Everyone was doing BBA or BBS, and Engineering wasn’t really an option. As I did my BSW, I was exposed to a lot of new subjects and methods. I initially found it a bit strange; I’d never done anything like it before, or done reflective writing. But as I went to the field more regularly, and spent more time with people, I learned more – and then was able to w…

I come from a background where education holds the highest ground. My parents made sure that I got the best education and for that, they sacrificed a lot. They taught me life values and above all provided a wholesome environment for me and my older brother. My mother made sure that we were learning and always motivated us to do best. After completing my Bachelor’s in Business Administration, I could not figure out where my life was headed and like everyone else I did my GMAT and TOEFL. But I was not sure if that was what I wanted to do. There was always this question in my head- whether or not I will be able to do something worthy in my life. I was bogged down by stress and that is when I decided to sign up for one of those Vipassana courses. That 12 days of meditation was kind of like a turning point in my life because after that experience I was able to sort out things that were going wrong. I dropped the idea of going abroad for my masters and started looking for job opportuniti…

My father used to work as a laborer for a living when I was a child. He scantily manages to read and write but my mother bears no education. Because of our financial hurdles, I could not play with toys and video games like other children do. But my parents never made me feel bored or alone. I moved from a private school to a public one as our financial status weakened. That shift made me encounter a crucial difference between private and public schools i.e., the community’s outlook and treatment towards public school students. The community always used to dominate public school students. They conceived that public schools cannot offer a good education like private schools. The covid-19 pandemic was the most difficult situation in my life; it caused me to lose my job and dragged my family again into financial difficulties. However, we didn’t lose hope and decided to rear a cow to help us overcome the hurdles. I dealt with all the difficulties in my life with a positive attitude. Eve…

Although my birthplace was a small village in Gulmi, I spent three years of my childhood at an Army school in India. Those days intrigued me as I got to experience a culture quite different than ours from the village. I remember moving to a new school at Tamghas, Gulmi in eighth standard through a tough entrance test. Several families including mine had migrated to Tamghas from villages for quality education, better health services and a comfortable lifestyle. The community, however, was not that educated; some hadn’t completed schooling and some didn’t have a chance to pursue formal education. But most importantly, parents ascertained the need for education and sent their children to schools. I would be forever grateful for the day Pradeep Rai came into my life as an inspiration. He started working as a physiotherapist in my hometown and months later, I finally met him. His humbleness, his affection towards us and the respect he earned from the community inspired me to pursue bache…

I was wearing a ragged blue shirt and a pair of pants. I didn’t have a pencil, notebook, or a backpack. Every step I took towards the school, my heart would start racing and my mind would tell me to turn around and run back home as fast as possible. A few yards seemed like miles, and as I entered through the school gate, every breath I took felt like the last breath of my life. It was my first day in a public school after spending a greater part of my schooling from a private boarding school. My family was facing financial difficulty and we were required to cut back. With private school fee rising, my parents were unable to afford the cost of private education. The first difference I notice when I entered the classroom was that it was overcrowded and loud. In few days of attending the public school, the difference in quality and rigor of education could be seen and felt. Throughout the Fellowship, my goal is to help students compete with people from all walks of life. I want to …

I wanted to join Teach For Nepal after a bitter experience with of one of my teachers who always humiliated students and made fun of their dreams. For me joining Teach For Nepal is an opportunity to motivate and inspire students to dream whether it’s big or small. Today we evaluate a student based on grades they receive in an exam. All students have different abilities, thought processes, and experiences. So we should evaluate students through different means. A teacher’s primary job is to motivate students because if a teacher is able to motivate a student, almost 90% of the job is done. While attending Kathmandu University School of Management for my Bachelor’s in Business Administration, I found mathematics and science courses challenging. The school employed some of the best teachers who helped me overcome these hurdles. They were very supportive and friendly, they used various teaching techniques, and they utilized each and every resource and material available to them to m…

I was born in Biratnagar but I spent most of my time in Kerala, India two thousand kilometres away from my hometown where I completed my schooling. I vividly remember gazing up at an aircraft in the sky and wanting to be a pilot during my childhood. Apart from that, I remember wanting to voluntarily help people in difficult situations. When I returned to Nepal and saw students walking hours and hours just to reach their school, it kept me thinking of why the society is so unequally distributed. Finding social injustice in our community has always been disturbing to me as I find it the opposite of what we used to read in school textbooks. I take education to be the highest source of wealth which I have accumulated throughout my life. I want to share this learning with the community and bridge the gap of education inequality as a way of fighting injustice. Through TFN, I want to complete my two-years Fellowship and be the change we seek to see in our country. I want to leave a…

In school, I was not very good at academics as I was more interested in co-curricular activities but I always tried my best to do better with time. My family never pressured me when it came to studies. Even if I did not score well, they would just encourage me to do well next time rather than scold me for not scoring good marks. My passion is the reason I applied for the Fellowship program. I want to help, encourage, and motivate children who do not have the privilege of getting a proper education. I believe every child deserves a chance in life to do something. I have a dream to open a children’s foundation home at some point in life and want to educate them. I want to be a Teach For Nepal Fellow as it would allow me to stay in close contact with the children and community and learn a lot about them. Through Fellowship, I want to bring a leadership quality to my students as well and make them believe in themselves and realize that they are capable of doing anything in life. This is…