It is often believed that advocacy and empowerment campaigns are synonymous with raising voices in a common platform with workshops and powerful initiative movements.
Advocacy is often measured in the scale of voices rather than the unique and creative initiatives we can make about it. Changing this stigma of how empowering events are organized, on the chilly morning of February 24, the team members of the Youth Thinkers Society ventured into a hiking journey to empower the LGBTQI community, marriage equality, and women empowerment of Nepal.
The Youth Thinkers Society called this exciting event “Summit for Change'' which is a blend of transformative journeys of adventure as well as advocacy. The team embarked on a journey to the beautiful landscape of Panauti, Kavrepalanchowk which would symbolize their fundraising event for empowering different youths from the LGBTQI + spectrum and promoting marriage equality in Nepal by providing scholarship schemes.
These scholarships will help the female and LGBTQI+ representatives to participate in the Provincial Model United Nations Simulation without the economic and social stigma burden. The hiking journey became a huge success with the joyful reels and hashtag campaign to promote marriage equality in collaboration with Mitini Nepal.
The presence of Mitini Nepal added more value to the program as they work to ensure a stigma-free society full of unity and love. Hence, the event was a resonation with nature, adventure, and meaningful differences for strong advocacy for marriage equality and equity awareness within the LGBTQI+ spectrum.
The youth receiving the scholarship will get exposure to one of the most powerful youth learning and advocacy platforms such as the Model United Nations Simulation under the Road to EIMUN campaign. This will strengthen their ability to research, learn, address, and empower other people within this spectrum. In simple words, “Summit for Change'' is a message to all young learners that their leadership journey must not be disrupted by financial, and economic burdens and social stigmas.
All in all, with the consistent zeal to improve the lives of youngsters from each nook and corner around Nepal, the fundraising event by the Youth Thinkers Society was a big leap of empowerment. The hike addressed the need for advocacy for marriage equality, and youth leadership in the LGBTQI+ community along with the playful interplay of nature and adventure. Hence, kudos to the organizing team for moving to youth elevation a promising and profound success!
(Aakriti Pant is an undergraduate student at Kathmandu University School of Management, majoring in Marketing and Research in Economics. Beyond academics, Aakriti enjoys writing, crafting illustrations and art, and advocating for human rights.)
(Nepalkhabar encourages students to send in their articles on any issues of their interest. The article should be around 500 to 700 words in English and sent via [email protected]. We will select, edit and duly publish them in our blog section.)
