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Last fall, I wrote a post as part of The Girl Effect blog campaign. The response was great and resulted in my meeting (virtually, at least) several amazing people whose work is dedicated to improving the lives of young girls around the world.
One such person, whose post – and nonprofit organization – was inspired by his great grandmother Rukmini, is Bibhuti Aryal. Bibhuti is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Rukmini Foundation. The goal of Rukimini is to improve the lives of underprivileged girls in rural Nepal by empowering them through a holistic program of quality education, supportive mentoring services and a physical well-being program.
How to Create Positive and Enduring Social Change
Bibhuti and I have stayed in touch, and I am honored to be able to work with him to share a series of upcoming posts on challenges faced and lessons learned in creating an organization designed to create positive and enduring social change. Bibhuti brings a founder’s perspective and a social entrepreneur’s passion to his work and the information he will be sharing here.
Over the next few weeks, I will post Bibhuti’s thoughts on various aspects of developing and running Rukmini – from the learning curve associated with starting something new to infrastructure, social, and business challenges – and how he has managed them.
Many of the issues he discusses are ones that both social impact businesses and nonprofit organizations, alike, are likely to face. They are also ones that aspiring social entrepreneurs might want to consider when putting together ideas and business plans.
Along the way, I will offer some resources and insights, but I also invite you to share your own experiences and lessons – how have you or your organization managed similar challenges?
With that, I’m honored to present Bibhuti Aryal and the opening to his series of posts:
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Bibhuti Aryal, Co-founder and CEO of Rukmini Foundation
Establishing an organization that aims to solve problems that have been plaguing underdeveloped countries for so long has inherent challenges, but along with the challenges comes a great reward: hope that we can make the world a better place.
We feel our cause is a noble one – empowering disadvantaged girls in rural Nepal through a holistic program of quality education, wellness programs and mentoring services. Good intentions however, were not enough, and now we have to figure out a way to turn this noble cause into a practical mechanism for change in Nepal. There is nothing simple about establishing a foundation or an organization of any kind.
School for the son, work for the daughter. Let's not do this injustice.
Over the next few weeks, I want to share with you some of the challenges our organization (Rukmini Foundation) has faced and continues to face as we attempt to change lives and, hopefully, the perception of the role girls play in the development of a nation.
Each week I will cover a different aspect of our work:
- Post 1: Organization Challenges
- Learning Curve
- Delivery Challenges
- Communication Issues
- Post 2: Infrastructure Challenges
- Technical Challenges
- Post 3: Social Challenges
- Cultural sensitivity
- Child protection issues
- Overcoming skeptics
- Post 4: Business Challenges
- Marketing challenges
- Financial challenges
- Sustainability
I look forward to sharing the challenging work of building the Rukmini Foundation with you. I also hope to hear about your experiences.
