Let your hope be your compass

Namaste!

First of all I am very much grateful to this project who has provide me a golden opportunity to share about me and my story and here's where my story begins.

It's me, Manisha Shrestha. Formally known as Manisha Katuwal while being at the Green Village (GV). I am from Chaubise Dhankuta, and currently residing at Godawari, Lalitpur (Nepal).

My journey of LP4Y began when the team mobilization team visited CPCS Godawari, where I was staying. I got to know about LP4Y project which increased my interest to join to understand more about LP4Y and I went Training and Development Center Nepal which is located in Tinkune.

After knowing about the project I decided to utilize my free time by joining 3 months professional life skill training of the LP4Y project. I joined the training in August 2022. Green Village Nepal is a part of LP4Y project that aims to accompany young women towards professional integration by equipping them with life and soft skills, which is located nearby Greenery nature.

Everybody has their unique hidden talents, which needs a proper and perfect environment to grow and Green Village has helped those last lights to burn brighter and to grow in the form of professionalism.

There were four micro-companies including Restaurant, Event Organizer, Digital and Sustainable with its own purpose, where we had to give mock interviews to be in the company of our choice. I was successfully hired at Event Organizing micro-company as an inventory officer. I started to work as an inventory officer with my different friends, who belonged to different backgrounds.

I was totally unaware about professional life before joining the GV. But later on, I got a chance to learn about the profession process of inventory management as well as learnt about the huge differences between fake and real Job Market and the companies.

Beside that, I found an environment where many Youths get chances to sharpen their skill through training. I was a shy person when presenting myself and to speak in front of people was one of my biggest fears but slowly it changed. Soon, I was able to organize awareness workshops among community people. While working with the team at GV, I learnt to find beauty in working with different people from different backgrounds. I was able to experience the power in Unity, which has helped me a lot now as well.

Two months in Event Company was such an amazing experience. The last month of the training was based on job search, where we did door to door to find decent jobs by ourselves which helps us to be independent on what we want and how we want. I learnt to use Google Maps as an important tool of modern life.

While going door to door, I was selected for the job at the Head Office of Labim Mall Company and had an interview with the HR office of that company, while doing an interview with Team Leader of Orchid Company. Unfortunately I failed to get a job in that Company due to lack of citizenship. The silent struggle of denied access to essential rights and opportunities was my biggest problem. I got many job opportunities but due to the lack of a citizenship Card, I was denied the jobs, which made me feel down. I was losing all hopes towards life. Everything became blank, my confidence, my skills. I was suffering from anxiety and lost all my patience even though I decided to talk about it with the Coach. They found a partner named Kritan Adhikari, who was a legal adviser.

Even after completing 3 months training (Entrepreneur step), I continued to have a followup with Kritan and my Coach of the center. After 7 months of followup to various government offices to fight for citizenship and doing a search on the local places where I used to live before 15, I found my step father with the help of local people from the community and successfully made a citizenship Card. Achieving a proof of nationality as a citizenship Card was my biggest success ever in life. As always, I will be much grateful to every members of LP4Y project including Kritan Adhikari and CPCS staff for unconditionally helping me to achieve my rights.

In 2022 I joined the STAR club (LP4Y alumni network) which is an autonomous and a huge part of LP4Y project. It's a group of those motivated Entrepreneurs who had successfully completed the 3-month Entrepreneur step. There are 6 important positions to form the club. I am the event ambassador of STAR club. I organize events and workshops, raise awareness and maintain the processes of every step of the event. Workshops are my main responsibility. We have different responsibilities as our position in the club with which we work together to achieve together. Growing together to achieve more has become our main Motto of the club.

Besides, it I am currently studying for a Bachelor second year and working as an inventory officer at CPCS Organization. My work has become better  now due to my team working experience from GV. I am working freely now and have basic rights as normal people do due to citizenship card. Imagine belonging to a country but lacking the basic proof of citizenship and being denied access to essential rights and opportunities due to the absence of a citizenship card. It creates a silent struggle for countless individuals. Therefore, I want to raise my voice on it. Working with young adult like me and the small kind kids has become one of the greatest environments to grow together for the bright future.

In the future, I want to write a story about my journey so that I can share a spark to those who have been feeling lost on their journey.

My journey taught me to find strengths in the darkest moment, during obstacles of my life where I had almost lost my hopes. Therefore: You are capable for brighter days!

I believe that everything happens for beautiful reasons in life. To those Stars who can shine brighter than they imagine, please let your hope be your compass to your aimed direction, because it’s the light in the heart’s tunnel.