SOUTH ASIAN YOUTH CONFERENCE

SOUTH ASIAN YOUTH CONFERENCE 2013,
BHAKTAPUR, NEPAL
15^th-20^th DEC, 2013

Report by: Urishna Shakya
Roll no: 1427
2^nd Year, 3^rd Semester

The inaugural ceremony on 15^th Dec, 2013 Rato Bangla School, Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur, Nepal

The programme aimed for youths (aged fron 18-30) from various South Asian nations was organized by Association of Youth Organization Nepal (AYON) and The Blue Ribbon Movement in coordination with Ministry of Youth & Sports, Government of Nepal was inaugurated on 15^th December, 2013 in Rato Bangla School, Patan-Dhoka, Lalitpur, Nepal

Starting off with the welcome speech by Mr. Bhuwan KC (the organizing member), Abhishek Thakore(founder of Blue Ribbon Movement)’s insightful speech, followed by our guests of honor, chair of the ceremony, Mr. Khil Raj Regmi, Chairman of Council of Ministers, the formal session came to an end with Mr. Jaya Ram Nepali (representative member of AYON)’s thank-you note. In the informal session, the folk instrumental band from Nepal, ‘Vairabhi’ turned up the energy note of all the delegates bringing them on the floor to groove along, which provided all of us,  from various 7South-Asian countries, an ice-breaker to start off interacting more easily.

The five days (15^th -20^th December, 2013) long conference had a particular schedule, which included warm-up energizers, plenary sessions on the thematic issues, two thematic track workshops, Simulations, feedback/reflection hour, family meetings, Project Marketplace in the same order, with meal breaks accordingly.

DAY 1: (16^th December, 2013)

After Miss Kia Scherr’s (a motivational speaker from USA) energizing session which talked about slowing down in daily activities, in order to bring awareness and consequently putting up more conscious efforts in whatever we do, we had our first plenary session on Meaningful participation. The moderator, Mr. Rajendra Mulmi, and the speakers, Mr. David Wilcombe, Mr. Anil Shrestha, Mr. Abhishek Thakore and Mr. Amit Agrawal gave us a pretty good explanation distinguishing the differences between participation and meaningful participation. The bottomline for youths like us was to not only look for ideas and suggestions, but also to have the zeal enough to conduct research on the respective topics so as to at least have full-fledge knowledge of what we are speaking. We were to realize whether or not, we the so-called youths are taking young decisions or the old/traditional/clichéd ones!

Then, we had two parallel workshops going on, one on ‘Meaningful participation’ and the other on ‘Sustainability’ among which I chose the one on ‘Meaningful Participation’. Mr. Rajendra Mulmi (executive member of AAYON) enlightened us with the ‘ ladder of participation’ that further got divided into three parts, presence, voice and influence, so in order to ensure participation that is meaningful and real, we need to have all the three constituents. And another good way of explaining that was, to make them participate and have them as beneficiaries, then to let them work as partners and then when they are capable enough, to let them work as leaders and to let them pass on the tradition. In the evening, we had our Marketplace session, in which all the participants were divided into various groups and were given fake currency notes (whooppies). Now, it was an entrepreneurial session so each group’s aim was to earn the highest amount of money. For this, we could take up a job or a business or provide any kind of service. Here, our group had put up a dance-show where a Sri-Lankan delegate, Kanchana and I had prepared a couple of dance performances, and were providing language translation services. Though we came second, the fun-filled experience was much more fruitful and learning-based. And not to forget, there was also a jam-up session of the conference that night post dinner.

The first thematic workshop by Mr. Allen Tuladhar on “Meaningful Participation: Social Media” on 16^th December, 2013

DAY 2: (17^th December, 2013)

The day’s plenary session on Livelihoods was made much more interactive with moderator Mr. Anil Chitrakar and speakers, Mr Shishir Khanal, Ms. Aashmi Rajya Laxmi Rana, Mr. Saurav Jyoti and Mr. Nirnaya Shrestha. Some insightful keywords, still fresh in my mind, importance of networking, capital loan access, Corporate Social Responsibility versus Corporate Social Investment, importance of synergy, etc. It was a very insightful session for me since I’m an undergraduate, and will be taking up a job very soon. So, it was a learning-based motivational talk. The day ended with simulation on ‘Democracy’ which provided us a clear view upon what and how decisions are taken in the parliament, wherein democracy is to be practiced. Post dinner some of the groups were busy prepping for their country’s representation through cultural songs, dance, and presentations.

DAY3:  (18^th December, 2013)

In the same pattern like every previous day, after Ms. Kia’s energizing session, we had the plenary session on ‘Sustainability’ with moderator Mr. Bhushan Tuladhar, speakers: Mostafijur Rahman and Mr Bishesh Shrestha. Very vividly, I remember the day’s thematic workshop upon the same issue, i.e. sustainability conducted by our moderator for the previous session.  For he was an environmental engineer, he was a very knowledgeable expertise on environmental sustainability. Even though he had a power-point presentation, he didn’t fail to grab our full attention. Some of the things that we keep neglecting in our daily life, which if brought in practice could have been easier but due to our carelessness and laziness, we think of them to be very burdensome and sophisticated. For example: choice of a compost bin for food waste management over throwing everything (degradable and non degradable) into the same garbage bin, preferring cloth bags for shopping over plastic bags, etc. These are some of the decisions that we can better and contribute for a better, healthier environment. Making us realize that traditionally, during the time of our grandparents, there was nothing called ‘waste’. Every waste product had its own way of being recycled or/and reused. From the empty bottles of Horlicks being re-used for pickle making, to dispose solid wastes into fields, farms, we the so-called new generation people still have a lot to learn from our ancestors. He also illustrated additionally explaining the Newari tradition of Saga: the waste ‘composting not disposing site’.  That day, during the breaks I and one of the other Nepali delegates, Aneesha, we were practicing for our duet dance performance that night.

DAY 4: (19^th December, 2013)

The day was focused upon action projects. After the previous night’s late bed-time, Tshering and I took enough time to come downstairs for breakfast, i.e. at 9am, supposedly at 8am. Then we had two parallel project presentations in the main offices of the respective projects. We went for the green social enterprise, Hamri Bahini, a project initiative of Himalayan Climate Initiative. First we visited its main office at Baluwatar, Kathmandu, where one of the volunteers gave us a short overview of their work. It was a great effort being made for trafficked or exploited girls’ employment and empowerment. Then, we were taken to Bhat-bhateni, Naxal for volunteering for about an hour to make an effort to convince the customers to choose the hand-made bags over plastic bags. It was my first time experience volunteering as a sales-girl, at first I found myself very dumbfounded not knowing how I should be talking to them, but later as I started talking to a few people with the help of some workers at the counters there, I started having fun selling the cloth bags. Though the women were being provided with decent jobs, the aim of removing the use of plastic bags seemed quite difficult to achieve. The customers not wanting to buy the bags, making the same excuse of having bought the bags already but forgetting to bring it along while shopping elucidated our carelessness and avoidance. After that we had our closing ceremony that evening; first the formal sessions and in the informal session, we had live musical performance by Shamishran band and the traditional Pancha Buddha dance by children of ECDC (Early Childhood Development Center) run by Miss Pushpa Basnet.

DAY 5: (20^th December, 2013)

The final day was city visit to Bhaktapur Durbar Square and the Kathmandu Durbar Square. Even though, I’d visited there a number of times before, it was a first time actually visiting the heritage site as a guide, explaining to the other international delegates, the little details of the places, their historic importance as much as possible. This actually helped me realize how rich we are in cultural diversity.

Conclusion:

Looking back on SAYC days and the days prior attending this conference, one thing that I find myself doing more at present is, keeping myself more updated, be it watching more of news channels, informative TV programmes, talking to dad about purchasing rates of land, etc. I realize that I, being a youth hold immense power and responsibility to do my little part of work so as to bring bigger changes. It’s high time I act as a changing agent, and not just sit back and watch and complain and groan about the things that are going wrong. People are doing great things, so why only think, and let’s just do it!!
I find myself grown in terms of my perspective of looking at things, I realize I didn’t use to critically analyze things which are, at times very necessary  to have a broader sense of insight.
Also, with tens of new international friends from South-Asian region, I’ve grown closer to each of their nations as well. Not only have we been able to share our issues from our respective regions, we have also been successful in sharing our cultural, lingual, religious diversity.

Finally,

Having been a part of this conference, I feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity to attend the conference and would like to take this moment to thank Mr. Nischal Pandey, Chairman of South Asia Foundation (SAF) Nepal, for providing me financial support within such short notice, and Mr. Ukesh Raj Bhuju, program coordinator, National College, for providing me the opportunity to participate in the programme.

Total No. of participants: 45
Country representation: 7 (Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan)
Next SAYC 2014 (South Asian Youth Conference): to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Report Completed on : 1st Jan, 2014

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