I was raised in a Newar family in a village called Chapagaun in Lalitpur. Coming from an economically weak background my father went to a public school. He struggled in his studies but that did not deter him from becoming a well-respected teacher of a reputed school. A teacher plays a vital role in the development of students life. A teacher’s job is not just to teach but connect emotionally with students so that they can motive and aspire them to become successful in their career and personal life. While pursuing my engineering degree, I found out it just wasn’t for me and decided to quit but found out that if I quit, the tuition fee that my parents paid by selling the land would not be refunded. So I decided to complete my education in engineering. As a Teach For Nepal Fellow, I want to promote the hidden talents of the children, I want to guide them and mentor them to follow their passion. I want to help them make the right decision when it comes to choosing their career path.

It all began when my dad saw the Teach For Nepal advertisement when I just started my bachelors. He told me about this amazing opportunity where you bring in the changes in the community through teaching along with developing leadership skills. For me joining Teach For Nepal is this amazing idea of spending time away from home in a rural community and teaching the students there. It’s a very new thing to me because I’ve never really left home. Never stayed in a hostel. As a Social work student, I am excited to put the theories I’d learnt into practice to solve the conflicts and problems in villages. And above all, I’m going to meet so many people and make an impact in the lives of my students.

My mother was born the 8th child in her family in a rural village. Her parents passed away when she was an infant so she had to do a lot of housework, work in the field, babysit for neighbours and sell vegetables to earn money. She was fond of reading and writing but her siblings did not support her in pursuing an education and instead married her off at 19 ending her education. I am in Teach For Nepal because my values and aim in life are guided by my mother’s story and bitter memories of my childhood days with teachers and school. Her struggles have made me what I am today and have always made me want to do something for rural children in Nepal. I want to help them so that they can have a better life than my mother had. After university, I was offered good positions by three different companies, but I chose the TFN fellowship over all of them. My decision is gratefully supported by my mother.

As is the trend in Nepal, I went to the US for higher studies in 2012. I was fascinated and overwhelmed by the country’s infrastructure and easily accessible basic necessities. Initially, I wanted to live their permanently. However, this changed two years later, when I participated in a cultural exchange program in Asia. The students from other countries had so many positive things to share about their home country. As for me, I sat there listening and knowing nothing positive about my country to share. Maybe, most of my schooling was done outside Nepal due to which I did not know enough about the country. But the only things, I knew for sure about Nepal was that it is a poor country with poor infrastructure, a huge gap between the poor and rich, high illiteracy rate and brain drain. These things I couldn’t share, I felt embarrassed! When I returned to Nepal, I did an internship and worked for a private company. I was doing alright, but I did not enjoy it and neither did I feel my …

I grew up living together with my extended family in a typical Newar community and was constantly reminded that I am a girl. Ever since I remember, I have been hearing “You are a girl. You have to marry a well settled man and give birth to children.” I remember seeing my mother struggle so hard to keep everyone in our big family happy. Now the situation has changed in my home, but our society is always the same. My parents never discriminated between me and my brother. But society has always pulled me back when I tried to move forward. When I applied for jobs I was told directly by companies that they were looking for male candidates. When a friend and I went to register our own food production company, a government official asked if we were there to register our beauty parlour. That really shocked me, that even government officials have the mentality that women are only for household work and small businesses. The incident really made me think that changes must be brought about i…

I came to know about Teach For Nepal when I was about to complete my bachelor’s degree in business administration. Most of my friends were preparing to start working in banks, study for their master’s, or go abroad. But I wanted a job in which I could make a positive change in society. The more I looked at all the information on Teach For Nepal, the more I loved how it works to end educational inequality. I thought about how I was when I was in school, a quiet and shy girl. I wasn’t even comfortable asking my teachers questions or participating in classroom activities. And instead of motivating us to let go of our self doubt, some teachers humiliated students in front of the class. I thought about how there might be children today in school who are how I was back in those days. I want to help them. I want to build their confidence so that they can have a good future and achieve success. Moreover, I want to prove to that shy little girl in myself that I can do this.

Some years ago I met the head teacher of the school in my village. When I mentioned that I want to have some experience teaching, he asked me if I could cover a year in eight class. One day, I brought in a world map and asked a student to point out “our country Nepal”. But even after five minutes the student could not point out Nepal on the map. This situation made me think that if I were the teacher of this class, this wouldn’t happen. In 2015, I started a joint Masters degree in Education and Sustainable Development. I always remember that class eight’s situation and was in search of the best platform for giving quality education and that is when I found Teach For Nepal. I now feel proud to be a Fellow and excited by the possibility to improve students’ learning situations. Beyond this I hope that Teach For Nepal will help me to develop my abilities and prepare me for my future in the teaching sector. Teach For Nepal is a great opportunity for me to become a really good teacher.

Neither of my parents was able to go to school when they were younger, my dad because it was too far away and my mom due to the belief of villagers that girls should not be sent to school. They were forced to do minimum wage jobs and so when I was a kid my family was not very financially stable. But still, they made sure that I and my two siblings were always able to attend school and they encouraged us to work hard to do well in our studies. Years later while working in the Gulf country, I met several Nepalese who were working there as labourer and housemaids. They were treated poorly, not paid on time, and cheated too. They used to blame our country for them having to work far away from their families. It was all due to the lack of proper education that they ended up in such a positions. At that point, I realised that education is all that matters. I might have ended up like them if I was born somewhere where there were no proper education facilities or if my parents were not supp…

I grew up in a small town called Bairiya in Kapilvastu district and only moved to Kathmandu later in life. When I moved to Kathmandu, my parents enrolled me in Little Angels School where I got one of the best education our country provided. The education I received from Little Angels School helped me get an admission in Guwahati for higher education. The skills I gained at Guwahati provided me with an opportunity to graduate with a degree in engineering from Bhopal, India and a job offer from Tata Group. Even though the position at Tata paid handsomely, I wanted a meaningful and rewarding career where I would not only work for myself but also for the betterment of the community. I joined Teach For Nepal because I wanted to be part of the fight against education inequity. I want to inspire children to follow their dreams so that they have a happy and meaningful life.

I was born in Lele not far from the capital of Nepal. Growing up, life was difficult because my mother had to take care of me and the household, as my father was serving in the military. Along with going to school, I helped my family by working in the fields till exhaustion to provide financial support. I still remember my own childhood vividly. I had nothing to eat during school because my parents couldn’t afford to provide me with lunch. After classes, I would rush back home in the hopes of finding leftovers from the morning. Later my father got a job at Gyanodaya Bal Batika School where I had the opportunity to study with a full scholarship. Studying in a private school, I found English to be very difficult but that did not stop me in my quest to get the education I deserved. I spent hours reading English novels and refining my writing skills. My hard work helped me secure the first position in class academically - the proudest moment for my father. I decided to join Tea…