The Story of the Kumroj Girls’ Subcommittee

After being inspired by other youth-led initiatives at their local READ Center, an amazing group of 35 girls in the Nepalese village of Kumroj decided they needed more, so they formed a girls’ subcommittee to better serve the needs and interests of girls within their community. They became a force for change.

This Kumroj’s Girls’ Subcommittee, a committee formed by and led by girls, began with simple tasks, cleaning and maintaining the READ Center Library, but quickly moved on to bigger impacts. They created the “300 Books For Children” campaign to promote stronger reading habits amongst their peers and younger children. Soon, they expanded to launching bolder initiatives, holding four events in 2018 to raise awareness about domestic and sexual violence in their community, challenging social norms about women and girls’ rights through student mobilization and street drama.

Most recently, in response to the devastating floods that reached their village, these rising young women leaders mobilized resources to provide direct relief for flood victims in Chitwan, exemplifying what authentic and agile leadership looks like regardless of age or gender.

These girls have become renowned in their own and neighboring communities. People in their community admire them and the active role they play in their community’s development, and other community-based organizations in the area use the Dibyajyoti Center Girls’ Subcommittee as a model for implementing community-based programs.

In this village, a society that tends to bound girls and women inside the closed boundaries is realizing that girls can “be the wind of change” in the community if they only have the opportunity to try.