Life revolves around work

Visualise it and then achieve it
Abhilasha Rayamajhi
Kathmandu

Kanchan Prasad Kharel, President of YUWA, youth led and run organisation, has worked towards incubating youth leaders in various sectors.
He completed his Master’s in Development Studies from Kathmandu University and at present he is also involved with Thames International College as a faculty.
Kharel started his career as a youth coordinator of Kathmandu Youth Network, Amnesty International Nepal in 2007 and since then there is no turning back for him.
He describes himself as a pragmatist and is determined to develop youth leadership through social movements and mentorship.
Talking about his vision about YUWA he says, “ The initial focus of the organisation was to develop leadership skills of youths or to get them trained as an adv o c a t e f o r change.” He further says, “ Young people are not the future of the nation, they are the power to drive positive change in the nation at present.” According to him, youth have the energy and innovative ideas to lead any area, be it business or politics or any other sector.
However, majority of the youth are misled and hesitate to express their opinions. “ Youth need proper mentorship, which I have experienced is lacking in this nation,” he shares. Innovative ideas can become a reality in the presence of appropriate support and guidance. He emphasises that mentorship and proper guidance for youth is important than idealistic advice.
Kharel shares that he was always interested in research and education.
As an educator he believes in breaking the age old one way lecturing.
He believes that students can learn better when they can connect the classroom learning to the real world. He encourages students to visualise and create a picture of the subject matter.
He says, “ I persuade them to create a picture of a prosperous community if I am teaching them about development.
I promote lear ning through story development.” Moreover, he provides contemporary case studies and mater ial s to make the subject matter relevant as per him.
Kharel was invited as a key note speaker by Ministry of Youth and Sports, Nepal at the launching ceremony of ‘ Nepali Youth in Figures’, a comprehensive youth data published for the first time in Nepal. He has received formal appreciation from Amnesty International Nepal, for his contributions. He has been awarded for maximum membership development among all Amnesty International’s youth Networks in Nepal. Further he is recognised by National Human Rights Foundation for the contribution in its campaign ‘ Right to education’. The dynamic personality visited the US at the invitation of the US State Department for a month to participate in International Leadership Visitors Programme ( IVLP). He led the delegates of Nepali researchers to international conference on ‘ Resilience, Coping and Hope’ in India. He was one of the four government official delegate for the finalisation of SAARC Youth Charter in Maldives. These are some of his exemplary achievements, however, he places encouraging other young leaders as his greatest accomplishment.
Hardworking and energetic Kharel, has always placed work at the centre and has also motivated his peers and mentees to do so.
YUWA empowers youth to participate in glocal issues, sustainable and intergenerational partnership. He has worked with youth who had no work experience at all and helped them build networks and perspective on leadership. Now he is mostly willing to work with young professionals and help them sharpen their leadership and business skills.

(The printed version of this article was published in The Himalayan Times Perspectives on March 20, 2016)