15 Nov Uniting Youth Participation and Women’s Leadership Development

YUWA (Nepal) joins Wedu in its mission to build a platform for women leadership

As a purely youth run and led organization working to promote youth participation through empowerment and advocacy, women’s leadership is particularly important to YUWA. Its membership is 50% women, many of whom lead YUWA’s board and actively engage with and lead their activities. “Women and girls, especially those in rural communities, have insufficient platforms and therefore opportunities. We work in rural areas to build on these young women’s capacity so that they not only have access to greater opportunities, but also become leaders in their communities. Women leadership should be at the national level of attention – not just organizational – especially if we want to see a better future for Nepal,” said Amit Timilsina, President of YUWA.

Amit Timilsina, President of YUWA

Amit is a fierce advocate for youth leadership development and excited at the new partnership formed between YUWA and Wedu. “[We] share a common philosophy to empower women and we both believe firmly in the value of higher education. In a country like [Nepal], empowering women through education is crucial.” YUWA joins Wedu’s community of notable international partners and will help to deepen the impact of Future Income Sharing Agreements (FISA) in Nepal, as well as use their expertise to help identify and refer women leaders to Wedu’s leadership development program.

“YUWA will play a major role in enabling young Nepali women to access funding from Wedu in Nepal,” said Lokesh, FISA and Operations Assistant Manager. “Through the ‘pay it forward’ model, FISAs provide Rising Stars with the unique opportunity to contribute to the success of future women leaders through their FISA repayments.”

YUWA, a word derived from a Nepali word referring to “youth,” has a driving vision with two components: empowering youth and strengthening their involvement at all levels. Amit believes mentorship plays a crucial role in creating better leaders. “Future leaders can come from anywhere and any life circumstance. Grit and experience are crucial in helping them to grow, but so too is the buy-in of current leaders. We want to build a platform where current and future leaders work together, delivering valuable experience, expertise, and insight on one hand, with new approaches and energy for positive change on the other. That’s part of the reason Wedu’s mentorship program resonates so well with our own vision.”

In addition to being a valuable partner to Wedu, YUWA is working on a number of impressive projects. The Youth Activist Leadership Council unites a diverse group of youth activists who advocate at the national and international levels for improved sexual and reproductive health policies through peer-to-peer info-tainment engagements, blogs and digital campaigns. As the “Right Here, Right Now” secretariat for Nepal, YUWA leads 15 local organizations on three thematic areas: advocacy on marriage equality, safe abortion, and comprehensive sexuality education.

Our partnership with YUWA marks an exciting milestone with significant implications for the future of innovative higher education financing options for Rising Stars in Nepal, and we are excited to welcome even more community members to the program as a result of their expertise in youth leadership.

To learn more about YUWA, click here to visit their website!

FISA is an exclusive higher education financing solution for Wedu’s Rising Stars. Learn more