All of us changemakers in EmpowHER Junior are a part of this cohort because we want to make a change. Each one of us are gathering and learning so much from EmpowHER. Each day the backbone of our idea is becoming stronger that lets us all envision our projects to be implemented successfully in the near future. All of us changemakers also want our consumers to be happy with our project and desire positive changes through the project. However, winning EmpowHER all comes down to the final pitch of our ideas. Considering the motive, our seventh session revolved around ‘pitching’.
First, we had a session from our guest speaker, winner of the EmpowHER 2015, Grishma Shrestha. She is working to upgrade the life of street children Not only did she share her experiences with us about the project, but also mentioned that determination is the key to change. She also indicated the challenges she faced, things she learnt and sessions she loved in EmpowHER. It was a great experience to bond with someone who had implemented one’s project and to know what it takes to bring a change.
Next, we had a session by guest speaker, Sarita Lamichhane from Prayatna Nepal. Prayatna Nepal is an organization aimed to empower visually impaired women for their better future. Sarita Lamichhane taught us all about putting sentiments and emotions in our pitching. She said that it is important for us to know the reasons we are working on our project. So, she told us to include a story of a ‘wow factor’ in our pitch to present in front of the audience and also fill our pitch with emotions so that we sound more confident and determined. We also have to include the reasons that align with our projects as said by Lamichhane. She sculpted our pitches more by the end of the session.
After the sessions from two guest speakers, we were all divided in groups and were assigned to each member of the Ujyalo Team for our next session of ‘Milestones’. All of us have to pass and face different milestones and moments of our life. In the same way, our project will also go through various milestones to be finally implemented. In this session, we discussed about the needs of our project and created our individual milestones that we will have to face while and before conducting our project. It gave us an insight on our destination with our project, our starting point, the adjustments and finally, our objective.
After the sessions, we had delicious momos that gave us vigor for the next session conducted by Princi Koirala.
Princi Koirala, from Tottle, conducted the session of pitching. She gave us tips, tricks and advice of what, where and when to include the wow, how and now of our pitch. She prepared a presentation that presented the dos and don’ts of pitching. Furthermore, she told us to prepare a minute and half pitch. She gave us feedbacks on making the pitch sound better. It was a helpful session for us, changemakers.
After the departure of Princi, we all had to prepare a three minutes pitch like the one we will be having in the last day of EmpowHER. Each one of us narrated our pitch and were given feedbacks by the rest of the changemakers. We all received the feedbacks positively.
The pitching had to include a ‘Wow- An Event or Story’ that aligns with our project. It included:
How – The solution of the problem we are trying to solve.
Now -Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and
Timely – SMART factors of our project.
After these sessions, we were awarded with gamification points and feedback forms to fill. Then we all went home, looking forward to the next session.
By: Anugya Koirala, Adity Sapkota and Sparcy Mainali
The writers are EmpowHER Junior Changemakers.
