Udeshya Girls in STEM

We are improving the quality of education of girls from disadvantaged communities in Nepal. We do this by creating training and bootcamps and a mentoring community for girls using zoom, Facebook and other digital tools. Our solution helps young girls navigate their own agency to solve problems within their community using STEM. This not only helps them but also improve the male to female workforce ratio in STEM fields. 

In Nepal, hardly anyone believes that a woman can become accomplished professionals in fields of  Engineering and Mathematics. Udeshya designs and organizes Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics or STEM boot camps for middle school girls from disadvantaged communities while supporting them with role models and mentors in their STEM-related pursuits.

Our solution is targeted to benefit public school students. Public school principals, teachers and local leaders in the government or NGOs would be the first contact people to bring our programs to their schools and communities. The target market is in small city-based and village municipal schools for the low end pricing, while we are also thinking about catering to the private schools market, for which we need to do a pilot once we have some foundations set up in the organization. We will be launching our marketing plan for public schools in three provinces Province 2, Bagmati, and Province 5. There are 29,207 public schools in Nepal.

How can young girls get out of the circle of low expectations, restrictions from cultural beliefs and neglect in their education? By a community provided by our Udeshya bootcamps that increases their confidence in tackling tough problems within and around them using STEAM-thinking tools. With a little push from our camps, they also change their own mindsets and as well as that of other people that girls can be great problem solvers and are important contributors to society.

We intervene to bring underserved community's girls to our bootcamp which gives them the confidence to solve problems in their lives, the knowledge that expands their horizons and a community that nurtures her growth. On a school holiday our user/beneficiary - a middle school girl at a public school would be busy assisting their family in household chores. She would visit the market nearby with friends or visit her relatives. She hardly ever finds herself in learning and growing activities outside of her school. When she does, those activities focus on skills training, local NGO awareness programs, streetplays, etc.  Similarly, if it’s a game or co-curricular activities within the school she sees a fellow boy being  first selected by teachers and she is there only fulfilling a gender quota. She is on the side usually watching, while the boys are discussing the answers at a Math quiz or in group activity for a science project. In class, she is less confident to speak or give answers unless the teacher really calls her name. 

At a time when schools are closed and preparing to reopen very carefully, the world risks a high number of children not going back to school. This number is skewed towards girls whose education is not seen as an investment but rather a burden in many countries like Nepal. While efforts of the past decades to bring more girls to school have worked, their recognition as important contributors to the society as professionals is not yet achieved, especially in disadvantaged communities. So, their education has been ensured by the state but not its quality nor long-term investment in their professional growth.  We aim to provide quality and long-term investment in their education and professional pursuits using Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) based tools. This helps in not only fulfilling this goal but the additional goal of closing the gender gap in STEM.  To do this, Udeshya: Girls in STEM is launched the mentorship program to reach girls all over the country who need further guidance and inspiration in their STEM-based pursuits. 

We have launched 4 projects in the past four years involving 77 school girls from different areas of Nepal. We have evolved with every project and we are experimenting with the needs in the field of public education. We would like to trial a few more online mentoring projects this year in 2021 so we better understand how to reach remote community schoolchildren. 

We are working in areas that have not been reached before in terms of mentoring. We are using simple online tools to reach school girls in rural areas with limited internet access.

We want to reach as many school-level girls as possible, those who are studying in public schools. In the long run we want to collaborate with government entities to establish Udeshya bootcamps in different municipalities that will serve the direct beneficiaries who are girls. Before that, we aim to bring many stories of change of girls who have benefitted from our camps. The indirect beneficiaries are the other classmates and community members who are inspired by Udeshya girls. For 20 direct participants, we are sure that at least they will inspire 10 other people that girls can do much more than they think and these 20 will also be role models to others. Each year we aim to directly impact at least 100 female students studying at public schools in Nepal. 

Our work hits at SDG 4 Quality Education and SDG 5 Gender Equality. The SDG indicator that is most in line with our impact is  “5.b. Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.”

Currently there are six active staff, only one of them is paid part time while the rest is working on volunteer basis.  We have finalized our tentative board of directors. We do not have coordinators and volunteers working full-time, they get hired as per need. For example, during boot camps they join as consultants.  We are looking for a broad background of board of directors who have expertise in the legal sector or the public education system as well as science and technology. We value their passion for girl education. We also need influential members who can help share about our work. We are also working to include corporate leaders. 

Astha brings experience of the market and business partnership skills. Eva brings the skills of instructional techniques needed in STEM and Richa has skills in government relationships. All team members have backgrounds in both public and private sector education such as Teach for Nepal, Karkhana, Anuvuti International. Astha and Richa are finishing their Master's within a year. Eva and Astha plan to serve on the board of directors for Udeshya while Richa will continue to lead as the executive director. We have an Executive Director, CFO and Curriculum Specialist on our team. We have seen the need for more programs staff as well as support staff/consultants for the E.D and CFO in raising funds. 

We have a good support of our board members and advisors from different sectors all over the world.

Within our organization, we are working towards creating a Board of Directors with at least 80% women from different socio-economic and professional backgrounds. We also have a culture of nurturing and providing space for people associated, to take their own lead in shaping their experience with the organization.  Udeshya: Girls in STEM is a safe space itself.

We are looking for financial and technical support to scale.