Dreaming to change the society through education, 18 years old Swornim Shrestha is one of the Founding member of Tinybits Foundation. It is a non-governmental and non-profit organization with motto of ‘Educating by making’ which is working actively to reform education, transform lives of disabled and primarily directed to an environmental transformation by fighting against climate change and Green Future.
He completed his secondary education from Ekata Secondary School, Chautara, Sindhupalchowk. 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.
Starting of his journey
“After the twin earthquake in 2015, my high powered laptop was damaged and after coming to Kathmandu for a month, all I had was a laptop with low power. After that, I learnt programming. I learned it and was amazed by how I did it and suddenly I got struck by an idea of starting a community of children and teaching them programming and computer science”, he shared how he is now in the field of programming. More importantly, his habit of watching a lot of movies related to tech and specially Silicon Valley led to the concept of Community Tinybits Computer lab which later named as Tinybits Foundation by his team and registered it as an non-profit NGO.
“Before these all, I would like to give all the credits of my success to my mom and dad who keep inspiring in every steps of my life”, he said ,expressing sincere gratitude to his parents for his success.
Making a difference
On asking what impacts has been created by his foundation in the society, he enlisted Curiosity, Green Future, Let’s Scratch and Scratch Localization as some of an on-going projects in the local level.
He said that Curiosity is the radio program which is all related to answering each and every question of the curious students possessing curious minds who don’t have internet access. Likewise, Green Future is an awareness campaign which is all about creating awareness that emphasize on reducing use of plastics by creating alternatives.
Let’s Scratch is a project related to train and aware teachers about pros of ‘Scratch’, a programming language developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ) that is being used in various places in Kathmandu. Similarly, the project called ‘Scratch Localization’ expanded the use of ‘Scratch’ in rural areas of Nepal by converting it into Nepali language.
In addition, ‘Pahilo Paila’ related to empowering differently abled people to be dependent and Tinybits Innovation Center for facilitating remote teens with the resources related to innovation, are future projects of Tinybits Foundation.
A step towards teen hero
“I heard about it last year when one of the friends of mine friend was selected in Glocal’s 20 under 20. And, this year when I knew that application had been opened, I applied by myself as I was quite optimistic to be selected in 20 under 20”, he said when asked about his fruitful teen hero journey. “At the very first moment, I told this good news to my parents”, he added.
Guided by the vision to make the country a decent place to live in, efforts done by him at this age are really commendable. What he has done being raised and studied in the place which is miles far from the capital, is inspiring. Teens like him are the precious wealth of the nation who should be recognized early by the state.
“I believe in inventing rather than waiting for a magical event to happen”- Swornim Shrestha
Swornim Shrestha was selected among the 20 brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers below the age of 20 in Nepal, for the year 2018. This annual list is the ultimate honor roll of young game changers reshaping Nepal for the better. The platform seeks to encourage the youths 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.
