What is Astitwa?

Astitwa, which also means existence in Nepali, has been initiated with the aim to eradicate the information gap that exists between children living in rural areas and the ones living in urban areas. After spending more than a year in Melamchi, I was quite surprised to know that despite having at least one mobile phone in every house the kids out there had limited access to information. Everyone out there has a Facebook profile and yet they don't know how to surf the internet to look up for any topics or ideas. Similarly, expression of thoughts and opinions is another factor that these children are not familiar with. Living in a conservative society where it is considered disrespectful to speak up about their issues, communication was a huge problem. I've seen children eloping, quitting schools and going abroad for reasons they aren't solely responsible for. Hence, ASTITWA - a platform to give these children an opportunity to speak up!

Think of Astitwa as a personal blog, but this blog belongs to the students of Shree Indreswori Secondary School - a public school in Melamchi, Sindhupalchok. The main objectives of initiating this project are as follows:

- Giving them (children) the exposure to use web applications like Wordpress, Wix, Google, Wikipedia, etc. for their own benefit. In this way, we hope that the youths from this area are more encouraged to use the internet in a more resourceful way rather than using it for entertainment purposes.

- Develop their (children) ability to freely express their thoughts and opinions through creative mediums whether it is in form of dancing, singing, artworks, or via literature.

- Enhance the writing skills of the students.

- Establish a reading culture in the students.

For further details about the website, you can reach out to me via email; rubik2018@teachfornepal.org