Home National Nepal’s Kanchan Amatya wins Presidential Honor Roll Award from President Clinton

Nepal’s Kanchan Amatya wins Presidential Honor Roll Award from President Clinton

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Boston (USA), November 21, 2017: In celebration of its 10th annual meeting, President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation honored Ms. Kanchan Amatya with the presidential Clinton Global Initiative Honor Roll Award at the 2017 Clinton Global Initiative University in Boston. This coveted recognition celebrated the dedication and passion of the world’s most accomplished young commitment leaders and social entrepreneurs, who over the past decade, have made a significant impact through their Commitment to Action.

The program featured former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, as well as Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, and many other distinguished leaders, social entrepreneurs, activists, policy makers, and difference-makers. More than 1,500 leaders from more than 90 countries around the world came together for the 10th annual CGI University (CGI U) meeting, making more than 750 Commitments to Action to address this generation’s most pressing challenges. A funding of $750,000 was made available to selected CGIU 2017 attendees to help them turn their ideas into action.

Born and raised in Nepal, Amatya is a young Nepalese social entrepreneur, environmentalist, and women rights activist. She currently serves as the UN Women’s Global Champion for Women’s Economic Empowerment and ​UN Zero Hunger Champion​. She is the Founder and Executive director of ​Sustainable Fish Farming Initiative – a female owned social enterprise which is fighting hunger and poverty in Nepal by empowering women farmers in Nepalese rural villages to help them realize their economic independence and legal land rights through sustainable fish farming practices. In 2015, she was also awarded with the Resolution Fellowship by President Bill Clinton for her outstanding work in leading innovative solutions to change patterns across society.

Her activism in Nepal and the United States includes work around reproductive health rights as well as leading delegation to pass the ​Girls Count Act at the White House which is now a law of the United States. She represents and advocates for Nepalese youths and children at the White House AAPI Youth Forum, White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders. As an ambassador to Women Protection and Prevention Center (WPPC), Kanchan has also worked with women survivors of gender-based violence in Nepal and advocated for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR).

Amatya was also recently awarded with ‘2017 Everyday Young Hero Award’ by Youth Service America and was listed on ‘100 Young Leaders Under 25’ by Impact Squared, UK. She will be representing Nepal in the 2017 World Bank Youth Summit which will take place on December 4, 2017, at the World Bank Headquarters, DC.