Home: Kavre, Kavrepalanchok, Bagmati

Education: Bachelor of Science in Food Tech, Padmashree International College, Nepal

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 in the mindset of every individual and that the main tool for this is giving education about gender equality to children. When I was a little girl I couldn’t do anything to help my mother. But now I am grown and mature and want to fight for women’s welfare and justice. I am in Teach For Nepal to become a leader of future leaders, to help my students get an excellent education so that they will also be motivated to become changemakers in the future.