Big dreams bold actions

Namaste!

Tonight, I invite you all to imagine a world through a different lens—a world of a young orphan girl, born in a remote village in Nepal. What would it look like? 

Let me tell you her world is heavy with pain. The pain of losing her parents, the pain of abandonment. She carries the weight of a cruel stigma—that she is cursed, that she brings misfortune, labelled as bearer of bad karma. And every day, she lives in fear. Fear that she’ll be one of the 15,000 girls trafficked into horror of sex slavery. Fear of becoming a forced child bride, trapped in a life of abuse and violence, forever dependent on a husband with no way out. 

Twenty-five years ago, that was my story my reality. I was that orphan girl. I could have been one of the statistics you hear in news. But my life and my destiny was changed with One simple gift a gift of education from a kind-hearted traveler. Yes, despite being born a girl in Nepal, despite being an orphan, and despite my patriarchal society seeing girls as unworthy of education, I was given the privilege to go to school which many like me were denied.

Gender inequality is the greatest injustice to humanity.

Namaste Im sonam sherpa co founder of the small world, To pay forward the kindness I received by following her path. In 2008, I founded a nonprofit organization called 

The Small World. Since then, we have provided educational support, capacity building, digital literacy, life skill training, mentorship, and leadership training to over 12,000 vulnerable and at-risk girls every year. 

I am incredibly proud to share that in 2024  fifteen of our girls were admitted to medical school and dental colleges and we have many more to share. In fact the greatest intangible ripple effect of our program is that our girls dare to dream beyond societal norms, they want to rewrite their stories and turn the old patriarchal decision making tables around, and these girls doesn’t want to inherit a system that they have not co created.

37% percent of the girls who have graduated from our programs are now holding respectable job positions back in their communities, serving as role models and leaders.

Today, my community has seen its first female lawyers, teachers, nurses, mountain guides, paramedics, media professionals, and civil engineers. These girls have shown our patriarchal society that girls are not the problem—they are the solution.

When we educate a girl in a country like Nepal, we are not just educating one child—we are educating every generation that follows. We are not just building  futures, but we are  rewriting  destinies.

I share my story not because its an extraordinary but because its a proof of what happens when a girl is given the chance to learn, grow and dream no matter where she belongs to. No matter how broken her past was.  

My education and leadership led me to this stage today and many other stages. It led me to meet with some of the most powerful leaders of our time like former US president Obama.

This is the power of education, this is the power of your support , each life you touch becomes a bacon of hope lighting the way for others. 

Together, we can change the world—one girl, one child, one community at a time.