Swornim Shrestha, 18, Top 6 Finalist of Glocal Teen Hero 2018 is one of the founding Member of Tinybits Foundation, a non-governmental and non-profit organization with the motto of ‘Educating by making’ which is working actively to transform education, lives of disabled and primarily directed to conserve the environment by fighting against climate change and Green Future.
He is now a student of Electronics and Communication Engineering at Thapathali Campus. Moreover, he describes himself as Electronic and Programming Hobbyist, Graphic Designer, Social-Entrepreneur and a musician. A finalist of GTH 2018 shared some words about him to Glocal Khabar during an exclusive interview.
Glocal Khabar: How was your journey as Top 6 finalists of GTH 2018?
Swornim: When I compare between how I looked then and now, I see a lot of changes. The journey changed how I think, how I see things, the way I respond and most of all, I learned to respect everyone regardless of anything.
After being selected in Top 6 finalists of GTH 2018, my life changed in a way I have never thought of. I was presenting my vision and works to all people, who were highly recognized. Every time, I presented my vision and mission, I kept learning more and more. I got to meet amazing teens and became familiar with their outstanding works. More importantly, all the sessions and workshops were really interesting and informative.
Glocal Khabar: How did your journey as a social entrepreneur started?
Swornim: I learned the programming languages by myself. Before that, the seed of programming was sown in me when teachers in my school finished all the courses within a few months which provided me ample time to quench the thirst of knowledge about programming. I was on a long vacation after my SLC when the earthquake hit Nepal which destroyed my high powered computer.
Simply speaking, I wanted to spread my knowledge of computing towards other children like me who were deprived of it. Aiming this, I formed a club named Tinybits Computer Lab with my two friends, Pranish Shrestha, and Ganesh Chaulagain. But later, we named it Tinybits IT Club, thinking it would reflect the broad meaning rather than focusing only on computing. Later, we registered it as a Non-profit organization naming Tinybits Foundation.
Janaki Shrestha, Swornim’s mother said, “There are no parents in the world who don’t get excited after seeing their children’s progress. Recognition of our son’s works has brought immense happiness in our family and we are praying for his further journey in the teen hero.” “He has been always kind to, especially, the disabled people and always wanted to do something good for others. We have never been an obstacle to what he wanted to do,” she added.
Ganesh Chaulagain, one of the founding members of Tinybits Foundation said that Swornim used to talk a lot about the ideas of spreading technological knowledge to the remote children. “I was senior to him, and now, we are working together for the change in a society,” Chaulagain added.
Glocal Khabar: What are your plans after GTH 2018; What will you be working on?
Swornim: At first, after GTH, I am working on myself. After the final interview with fantastic juries, I discovered the flaws in me which I need to fix. So, I ’m working on myself at first, then I’m planning to share this learning with my teammates and co-workers at Tinybits Foundation.
After done with this, I’m going to work on the project named Tinybits Innovation Center. Tiny bits Innovation Center projects that focused to provide platforms for school children towards innovation with the utilization of available resources. This project is going to be started by this year from Chautara, and we have dreamed to spread it throughout all the remote places of the country.
Glocal Khabar: What is your message to the youths from all of your experience till now?
Swornim: I request all the youths to ask themselves some questions; am I doing everything that needs to do to achieve my goal? Am I giving my 100%? I used to think that I’m giving my all of it, but through this journey, I understood that 100% is never 100%. You can still do a lot to achieve your dream. The important thing in life that you need to resist is underestimating yourself: don’t do that. I’ve seen a lot of youths in Nepal doing a lot of things to make it a better place to live. You just need to do whatever you can do from your side.
All I want to say to every youth is, Nepal is developing, its pace will be faster if every youth like you and me can contribute what we can from our own place instead of complaining.
Know more about Swornim, click here.
Interviewed By: Pawan Bam
