Bikalpa an Alternative, with support from Atlas Network, organized an orientation program for the “Bikalpa Fellowship Members” on 3rd September 2022 at Hotel Shree Krishna. The program’s objective was to orient the selected volunteers for the year-long” Bikalpa Fellowship Program.”
The Bikalpa fellowship is a knowledge-based capacity-building program where youth can enroll, benefit from networking, and participate in various discussions, training, workshops, and extracurricular activities year-round. Bikalpa will educate, empower, and engage the youths of Biratnagar Metropolitan City and help to develop their leadership capacity for the betterment of society beyond their textbook. Besides this, the enrolled youth will gain knowledge on civic engagement, internship, campaigning & volunteering opportunities, and a platform to enhance their capacity. This is also an opportunity to be associated with the Bikalpa, an Alternative organization.
As part of the first phase of the program, we called for volunteers through social media and enrolled them through the Google application form. We received over 120 applications from 19 wards of Biratnagar. Among them, 70 applicants were interviewed at Bikalpa’s office. Mr. Basanta Adhikari and Mr. Sarwagya Raj Pandey took the individual interview where participants were marked based on their confidence level, leadership quality, time commitment, and enthusiasm regarding the program. After the preliminary screening of volunteers through the interview round, 38 fellows (a boy and a girl each) from 19 wards of Biratnagar were selected.
After that, the selected Fellows were called for an orientation program. Mr. Basanta Adhikari started the orientation program with a welcome and introduction session. During his presentation, he shared the objectives and benefits of the program with all his Fellow members. He also shared his own story about volunteerism and activism of his yesteryears and how that had helped him to take different social initiatives and develop his Leadership Skills. He also encouraged participants to take social responsibility and invest in self-development to enhance their leadership skills.
The participants were divided into five groups to brains storm and identify local issues. Each of these groups identified different issues, such as
- Waste management
- Traffic Management
- Light bulbs and other public amenities
- Lack of sidewalk/footpath, proper urban planning issue
- Parking spaces
- Drug addiction: rehabilitation and prevention, awareness (14,6,12,1)
- Maintenance of public infrastructure
- Sports management
- Illiteracy and its consequences
- Women and Child right related awareness
- Personality development
- Urban management
- Food distribution for homeless people from leftovers
- Ward management
- Citizenship problem awareness program
- Environment awareness and Planning
- Youth participation
- Entrepreneurship related activities
- Government School development
- Dialogue Platform
After the presentation, the Fellows were voluntarily divided into 5 working groups, each focusing on certain types of issues to work on in the coming days.
The newly formed groups are currently designing potential activities and stakeholders. They will receive more trainings to prepare them for the leadership role they are meant to take over and the full-fledged activities of the fellowship will begin in November.
