“…and the winner of
the High Level Meeting for Child Rights (HLM3) Youth Innovation Challenge for
the Social Protection For Family category is Bonita Sharma from Nepal.”
The words still echo through my mind.
For someone who was always an average Jane at school;
someone with shattered self-belief and nonexistent confidence; someone who has
such luck that even winning a 10 rupee coupon in noodles is a big deal, this felt
like a dream!
The 8th of November became one of the life
changing moment for me. Not only did I represent my country and win a
competition in an international platform, but also rewired my belief system,
where hard work and determination takes you a long way.
***
Four months ago I received an email about the HLM3 Asia
Pacific Youth Innovation Challenge. In the competition, each country in Asia
Pacific was given a unique theme & challenge regarding issues children are facing worldwide, and youths had to come up with an innovative solution to address them. Initially, I wasn’t planning to apply for the competition,
but one of the challenge questions for Nepal was regarding Maternal and Child Nutrition
which grabbed my attention as it is one of the areas I am keen to work in.
When I discussed my ideas for the competition with my
close friends, some of them were very supportive and shared the same level of
energy as I did, while some were skeptic about it. The deadline was approaching
so I sent my idea anyway. However, there wasn’t a single second where I
thought I would go through the first round as I always believed that I am not
good enough at anything I do.
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| Meeting the users during online mentorship |
The six weeks journey was a roller coaster ride. Each week
you would get learning materials and a task to submit within a deadline. Though
I had to juggle my studies, office work and the competition all at the same
time, those six weeks felt like an inventive game rather than a hectic
challenge because I had my relentlessly hard working teammates whose dedication
and the selfless team effort made the idea a winning solution.
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| Got the notice board yay! |
Every week there was a mission to submit your task, get it
graded and receive encouraging feedback from the most kind and inspiring
mentors. I remember doodling for hours at night to structure the idea, making
the walls dirty with posters and sticky notes (in spite of my parents warning
about the stain the glue left on the wall), dragging my teammate to field visits to interact with the users regardless of their busy schedule, requesting
my employer to provide a notice board so that I and my teammate could paste our
post-its while brainstorming solution after work. Our motivation during the
entire process was self generated with an aim to achieve the higher goal to ensure
better future for our children.
My birthday arrived with another surprise. On the 10th
of October, I received an email confirming my selection for the Bootcamp in
Kualalumpur, Malaysia. It is the best gift I have ever received.
***
The Bootcamp
HLM3 Youth Innovation Bootcamp is by far the most enriching,
inspiring program I ever attended. The entire experience changed me and empowered myself as a social changemaker. The mentors in the
bootcamp are undoubtedly the real life superheroes who I believe, helped each
one of the participant to go through metamorphosis. I don’t think I have ever
felt this level of growth in myself within such limited time. I have learnt to analyze
the problems from a different perspective and find innovative ways to address
them. I learnt never to give up despite the failure, and forever strive to improve
lives of the millions of children in any ways I can.
During the bootcamp, we built experiments to test and
validate whether our idea is actually a tangible solution that foster positive
change. My Youth for Nutrition teammates back in Nepal took a leave from their
work to test the experiments with our target users. Their enthusiasm and energy
to give something back to the society has remained my strongest motivation
throughout my journey. I am also very grateful to them for believing in me and
helping me overcome my fear of becoming a leader.
One of the biggest parts of the bootcamp were the
participants who actually deserve a separate piece of writing. Despite of the
diverse cultural background we came from, all of us had a common goal to help
children through incredible innovations. Instead of competitors, we were a team where we constantly build, motivated and pushed each other forward. I
consider myself very fortunate to have met the 45 changemakers from around the
world. The bootcamp has given me lifetime supply of this phenomenal friendship
I share with the participants.
***
Pitching the Idea
After preliminary judging round, six finalists were selected,
who had to pitch their idea infront of ministers and advisers from 29 countries.
When I found out that I am one of the finalists, the first thought I had on my
mind was, “Is it possible for me to run away now to escape this?”
My lack of self confidence fed my self doubts, which was
further fueled by realization of losing "NutriBeads" (my idea prototype) seconds before I went
on stage to present my idea. This was followed by mini heart attack and few glasses of water. I
tried to calm myself down with breath-in-breath-out exercise.
We were given five minutes time to finish our presentation
and unfortunately I had to skip the best statement that I kept for the last
because there was no time left. I even forgot to give thanking remarks to the audience at the end
of my presentation. Well, better late than
never! Thank you so much to the warm audience in the Unicef High Level Meeting
on Child Rights 3 Conference for your kind attention and for your support with the “awwww” gesture at the
end of my presentation when I had to stop halfway. Shout out to Kal, Ronan, Anne, Danial, Michelle, Marina, Chelsea and the entire team of Tandemic who I cannot thank enough for the continued moral support and for all you
have done to help in my transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
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| PC: Creative Makura |
I stood in front of 200 people, represented my country and shared an idea on
something that I am really passionate about. By this time, I had won over my fear, self doubts and low confidence. In past 3 months
journey, I got a chance to explore my creative side, I started to act rather
than just think, I learned failure is mandatory for success, and I grew as a
changemaker with a mission to make a positive impact in the lives of children. I was already a winner!
When the amazing super judges called out my name as one of the three winners of the competition, it was an icing on the cake. I received a seed grant of USD 5000 along with mentorship and support from Unicef to
start up a social project based on the winning idea. There was a flow of
appreciation, encouragement, motivation and lots of hugs and photographs. It kind of felt
like a mini-celebrity moment!
The HLM3 Youth Innovation Challenge journey changed my life
in ways I never thought it would. It has become a stepping stone for my
adventure ahead as a social changemaker. Since November 8th, I have had opportunities to interact with young people, dignitaries from government and non-government sectors and stakeholders who have shown massive enthusiasm to our cause to end malnutrition beginning from the grassroot level through awareness and education for the mothers in communities.
Thank you everyone for believing in me and for being a part of my emotional and inspirational journey!
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| CHANGEMAKERS! PC: Tandemic |
If you would like to know about the winning idea, please
refer to the link below.
