Rohan Bagale is an 18 year old passionate social activist from Chitwan who has been involved in several campaigns related to child rights, youth empowerment and environmental conservation. He is also a visionary a radio journalist who wants to improve his society by highlighting different pressing issues.
His Journey
Rohan joined a child club at his school when he was in grade 5 and he started his journey of activism at a very tender age. Even at that young age, he was aware of the problems that could be solved by active engagement. He joined ‘Navodeet Bal Club’, the club at his school, as a general member and became secretary after years of engagement. Later, he represented his ward and got selected as a president of Ward no. 4 of Youth Club. He is currently an advisor to the child networking organization of the ward.
Two years ago, he initiated a protest about child rights all by himself. Through the protest, he was successful in making people aware about various problems faced by children in Chitwan. This protest even grabbed the attention of District Administration office and sparked conversations with different members of parliament. After gaining some momentum after the protest, Rohan thought it would be a good time to start other campaigns covering important issues. “A year ago, I initiated the NGO Family planning association of Nepal which advocates for sexual and reproductive health rights of people,” said Rohan. Furthermore, he also ran important campaigns with the help of municipality to advocate about environment cleanliness and conservation.
Rohan wanted to make his campaigns more impactful which led him to start radio journalism. “I believe journalism can be a key tool to make people aware about various pressing issues of the society,” said Rohan when asked about his motivation for radio journalism.He was involved with Radio Bharatpur Chitwan for 10 months as a journalist and took a gap for a while because of his academic priorities. He highlights the issues of reproductive health and child rights through journalism.
Rohan is also involved with a social organization called ‘Hamro Dristi Ramro Dristi’ for 3 years now, of which he is a secretary. Through this organization, he and his team provide scholarship to more than 200 students and stationary to more than 150 students of Chepang community and other minorities of Chitwan on a yearly basis.
Having been living away from his family from a very young age has made him independent but also made him prone to different hurdles. He had financial difficulties to fund his campaigns and also didn’t get that much of a support from the society when he was starting off. Despite the difficulties, he believed in himself and kept on doing the good work.
Glocal Teen Hero and his future plans
He heard about the platform of Glocal Teen Hero through teen hero alumnis, Ms. Bipana Sharma and Mr. Deepak BK. They encouraged him to apply and he felt like this platform would provide him the strong networking that he needs to make his campaigns more fruitful.
Rohan plans to pursue Social work as his academic study and wants to spread his campaigns all over Nepal. “I want to keep on fighting for child rights, environmental conservation and rural development for a change,” he said. He wants Child Friendly Local Governance(CFLG) all over Nepal.
