Tired of the sheer negativity and pessimism around, and boringly repeated front-page headlines of political news in national publications, a small group of volunteers gathered together to start a movement to change the way news is presented.
It was a small initiative started out of the youth energy to bring out the positive side of our society, covered beneath all the negativity and pessimism. It was a stride to be a mirror to reflect the positive aspect of our society and youths.
At a time when most national media covered headlines of youths involved in crime, and portraying youth as just stone pelters in political rallies, drug traffickers, robbers and similar wrong-doers, Glocal Khabar was born to show there are not only such evil elements in our society but also some amazing youths who are doing wonderful job from their part to bring out a change in the society.
Today, as Glocal Khabar turns three, we recall the journey we went through, almost a roller-coaster ride. The path was not smooth. In the era of clickbaits when news and headlines are made sensational, Glocal Khabar always refrained from following this trend.
Past year, Glocal Khabar introduced two flagship columns as a trial: Startup Stories, and Youth Opportunities with the objective to share success, failure, challenges and opportunities that teens and youths can have in Nepal. We made the story in most positing and aspiring to readers. These columns became the most-read section in the publication. These startup stories have also been a case study to study about the startup culture and its market. We had launched Startup Stories just to feature 20 promising startup companies in Nepal, but we could not resist the overwhelming response from our readers, to continue it. We published the 55th startup story last Friday, and have will to continue this column forever. With this, we are glad to be contributing the development of entrepreneurial ecosystem of Nepal.
Just yesterday, we started a new series of articles, ‘Entrepreneurs in the Hinterland’, that will feature the emerging entrepreneurs in the rural part of Nepal, who are doing amazing jobs in their own locality. Within this month, Glocal Khabar will be starting two other flagship columns, ‘College Diaries’, and ‘The People’. The former will feature stories of some wonderful colleges of Nepal that have not been heard much but are doing an amazing contribution in the education sector of Nepal, and the latter will feature the people whom we meet and encounter in our daily life, but also have a story that needs to be heard.
Today, Glocal Khabar begins its fourth year of journey. While this milestone doesn’t have the same ring to it as the 25th or 50th anniversary, it’s still an accomplishment worth nothing for an independent online youth media.
The three years have been an amazing learning experience for the young and vibrant team at Glocal Khabar. In the course of searching for stories, we often get amazed and wonder ‘Do such youths really exist in Nepal? Why didn’t we hear about them earlier?’ There are many unsung heroes in our society, whom we need to hear. In this year, Glocal Khabar wants to be even closer to you and be ‘your voice’ and ‘your choice’ of news portal for positive and inspiring news and stories of our society.
Expecting even more support from you all our valuable readers!
Basanta Kumar Dhakal
Project Lead, Glocal Khabar
