LitCamp 2017 An Annual Festival of Empowerment

Even though LitCamp 2017 is now over, the joyful memories are still quite fresh. We have seen such growth in our LitClub members and LitClub Nepal, and this year we are extremely happy to share that we have added two new clubs to our annual LitCamp. Girl Power is rising in Nepal!

LitCamp provides an unique opportunity for all LitClub members from very different areas to come together to live, learn and have fun. This year’s camp was hosted by Rukmini Foundation’s partner school – Setidevi, Sokhel, and the arrangements for our stay were made in a superb way: a beautiful venue and great hospitality.

We have been running LitCamps for a few years now, and it has become one of the biggest and most eagerly awaited event for LitClub Nepal and Rukmini Foundation teams. It is as eagerly anticipated for us as Dashain Festival is for most Nepali people. This year we held this 3 day program on the 27th, 28th and 29th of July at Shree Setidevi School, Sokhel Pharping. The school is located close to a scenic reservoir and the first Hydro-Electric Power plant in Nepal.

There was great participation from all 8 LitClub Nepal members and we had 90 LitClub members, 10 volunteers and 12 mentors as part of this program. The participating clubs were LitClubs: Niharika, Shikharapur, Setidevi, Bhaktapur, Durgabhawani and Greenland along with two newly formed clubs – LitClub Shree Krishna and LitClub Panchakanya. The key purpose of the camp is to provide the girls an opportunity to come together to get to know each other while making friendships, sharing stories and exploring their strengths and celebrating girl power.

We were very happy to see that all of the students were not only involved in all of the activities, but were enjoying the activities as well. We designed the program to make all of the girls feel comfortable and to have them be engaged, so it was great to see it working. There were various songs, dances and core bunk activities that helped the girls to interact and enjoy the camp. These activities included: a treasure hunt, nature collage creation, illuminative words, cloud inspection, making cards and heart maps and more. These activities helped the members to bring out their creative sides and understand their own strengths. We also included small trips like a visit to a nearby Gumba(Buddhist Monastery) and a hike to a nearby Hydropower plant. We also provided time for the girls to just read by themselves, so that they did not get overwhelmed. Within those 3 days of camp, the mentors could spot changes in many of the girls, especially the little girls from two new clubs who seemed to be very happy to be part of this unusual program.

During the wonderful days of LitCamp, girls were able to build relationships and become part of one big, happy family. Spending three joyful days together eating, learning, laughing and developing friendships that seems to have allowed the girls to express their personality. Even within this short time, we have seen girls who seemed very shy and timid show courage in talking and sharing their feelings in front of others. This is just one of many reason that it gives us great joy in being able to hold LitCamps. We hope that these girls will use this experience to keep motivating themselves and other girls around them.

We would like to thank our Supporting Organizations: LitWorld and Global GLOW as well as Rukmini Foundation for making this possible. Big thanks to all LitClub Mentors and Members who made this the best LitCamp. We would also like to thank all of the volunteers and Rukmini Staff for taking care of all of the girls and mentors. Lastly, we want to share a warm thank you to Mr. Ram Kumar Sir for offering Setidevi Sokhel School as the venue and for providing exceptional assistance throughout this wonderful program.

Prakriti Nepal
Director, LitClub Nepal