Kathmandu: To generate awareness and motivate youth for nation building, Yes Club World (YCW) is hosting Youth Interaction Series at Art of Living Centre, New Baneshwor.

On October 18, YCW invited three youth activists who started contributing to society from a very young age to share their experiences and to brainstorm with youth on the topic, “Are you the next generation?”


Saunak Bhatta, a third year student of Developmental Studies at National College, Phurba Sange Moktan, a student of public health, and Dipendra K C, a third year student of BBA at Kathmandu College of Management, have been engaged in various organizations and have also been educating youth from all spheres in various developmental projects in areas such as health, leadership, and environment.

“I realized that I’m not just a youth but a youth activist. I spent many years of my life regretting things that happened to me but one day I realized that I can contribute towards society in thousands of ways because I possess five senses that can perceive, a dynamic human mind that can interpret, a pair of eyes, and hand and legs which have better abilities than other living beings. Therefore I can make a difference,” affirmed Saunak.



He is also a British Council’s Climate Champion and is carrying out various environmental projects involving students, one such initiatives being the “Green Man/ Green Woman” project which aims to make people more conscious and society free of environmental issues.

Ultimately, Saunak desires to make a significant contribution in the education sector.

“When we were in school, we collected one rupee from each student in our school and bought basic materials required for schooling - stationary, uniform and books, for 12 children in Dang and now they have completed high school,” informed Dipendra.

He indeed has an interesting perception on youth and said, “We learn the most when we do not have anything - and money is that ‘anything’. Our struggle is what shapes our solid personalities.”

He has been working with YUWA and has also done investigative journalism along with being involved in HIV/AIDS programs.

He shared a unique method of collecting secondhand books where YUWA collected books in return for a documentary show.

Rather than being charged with money, the audience was charged with an old book.

Phurba founded and is also known as Paschim Paila – the youth movement that he has been coordinating for over two years.

The movement aims at training the locals via engaging the youth in far western parts of Nepal to prepare for waterborne diseases.

The death rate due to such diseases is over a thousand per year, but the project has already been able to save about 350 lives. “People are dying due to negligence and that is simply intolerable,” opined Phurba.

“No matter which field one is working in or how much time he or she can spare for their desire to make society better, if they have the zeal they will automatically involve themselves,” encouraged Phurba.

In a country like ours which is in a transitional phase, there are thousands of ways to contribute because every initiatives matters.

“Many people will be discouraging and will offer negative comments but one has to endure it and rise above that in order to accomplish what interests them,” reflected Dipendra.

source:republica, 19 Oct 2011