Supriya Maharjan Sapkota is a young social activist from Kathmandu who is currently involved in different projects and campaigns. She initiated ‘Project Hope‘ and is a Female Champion 2019 at UNESCO Nepal.
Her Journey
Ever since her school days, Supriya was active in social works. She was an active member of Social service and environment club in her school and was familiar with different pressing issues faced by people in our society. Right after her SEE, she engaged herself in debates, MUNs and public speaking through which she indulged more on the urgent issues. “I am someone who wants to dig in deep about any issue that seems important,” she said earnestly. Through the events she participated, she got the opportunity to meet like-minded with whom she initiated the social organization, ‘AAYAM‘.
Since December 2019, she has been working in an awareness campaign called ‘Project Hope‘ which advocates for child children rights and dropout rate of marginalized children. In the first phase of the campaign, she and her team went to Kaski with an aim to solve local issues. Likewise, they headed to Dolalghat and Kavrepalanchowk for the second phase of this project. “We showed young children documentaries and conducted several interactive activities. In one of the activities, we asked them to draw their dreams in a plain paper and make a paper airplane, which they later flew. This is a symbolism for ‘flying your fears away’,” said Supriya.
They conducted these sessions in order to motivate young minds to pursue their dreams. This project also helped her reflect her Journey and ideas on dreams.
She also worked for children of Bansighat slum. The situation of the children were so dire that they didn’t even know the importance of education in their lives. Her team consulted with some of the seniors and found out that because of the increasing dropout rates from school, poor children get stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty and end up in the streets. Supriya is also the female champion 2019 at UNESCO Nepal through which she delivers sessions to young minds on ‘Wash Nutrition Gender equality and CSH’.
Talking about her hurdles, she had difficulty in juggling studies with her projects. She thinks Nepali teens
have huge prospects in activism and can get involved in various things. “They have to focus on research in order to understand any issue deeply. Similarly, passion, hard work and determination play important roles,” she said thoughtfully.
Glocal Teen Hero and her future plans
She was familiar with the platform of Glocal Teen hero from different events she got involved. “Being a part of GTH is a proud moment from me. This recognition motivated me and made me feel satisfied about my work,” she said.
Supriya wants to study either agriculture or veterinary. Either way, she wants to conserve environment and animals. She also wants work for street children in future and be a child rights advocate.
Supriya Maharjan Sapkota was selected among the 20 brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers below the age of 20 in Nepal, for the year 2019. This annual list is the ultimate honor roll of young game changers reshaping Nepal for the better. The platform seeks to encourage the youth to share their initiation, creativity, and enthusiasm which will then motivate them and more of the other youths in the nation to develop an entrepreneurial thinking.
