My Story

Intro

Jiban always felt that some limited people are getting lots of opportunities but many have no option than to rely on traditional agricultural occupation, which leads to underemployment and unemployment. Because of a lack of opportunities many young people engage in destructive behavior such as quitting school or joining the Maoist. Why could we not empower young people  to contribute positively to society? This question was always on Jibans mind.

About Me

I am Jiban Baral from Pokhara, Nepal and I was born in a lower middle class family. I just finished my final Bachelor in Rural Development and Sociology. I am a young social entrepreneur working in urban and rural areas in Nepal. My personal interests are trekking and traveling to new places, reading novels, swimming, music and I am passionate about working for the rural youth of Nepal and I believe that youth, as changemakers, will lead the constructive social development for building a prosperous and equitable society.

The first organization I founded was the Yuwa Forum Nepal; in which I now act as an advisor. I established the Yuwa Forum (YF) in 2003 with the objective to promote entrepreneurship and awareness among youth, and the aim was to motivate youth to contribute to development activities in our country. He worked with the forum for three years. In 2006 I started my second organization, Alternatives, with the little pocket money I had during my time in college. Right now, I am serving as founding President and Executive Director of Alternatives with the aim of consolidating youth for prosperous development.

For the last seven years I have been working on youth issues, as I strongly believe that youth are the engine of entrepreneurship development so we should nurture their ability and skills. I also worked as radio journalist in local FM radio and through this program I empowered young people by raising awareness of youth roles on social, economical, political and cultural issues in our society.

My Venture

There is an interesting story to share about the initial concept of my idea, which is the main motivation for initiating Alternatives. There was a boy named Ram Tamang, a 16 years old young boy in a rural village of Kaski District. Motivated by Maoist during the insurgency period he left his school when he was in grade 8. The Maoist used to come repeatedly to his school and tried to motivate students to bunk the school and join their militia. He didn’t have any options than to go abroad or join the militias. After he received the militia training he started to take up guns instead of books. He did not have any believe in the modern educational system, which he claimed to be impractical and feudalists. He was brainwashed by the Maoist ideas and when he was asked about his future plans, he was in dilemma but always thought that there could be a way out. It seems that there was a dreadlock for his career.

This was a scenario of one of the contexts in rural Nepal. It was a pathetic situation. Some limited people were getting lots of opportunities but many had no option then to rely on traditional agricultural occupation, which leads to underemployment and unemployment. Why can we not empower them with their own skills and knowledge? Why can we not use them constructively? These questions made me think for a long time and I decided that I should tackle the problem by setting up Alternatives.

I established Alternatives in 2006 as a pioneer Nepalese youth-led social enterprise. Since its inception, Alternative has encouraged Nepalese youth to become social entrepreneurs and has contributed to the society by creating a generation of youth endeavors who are self dependent, productive and skilled. We aim to create new possibilities and practices so that young people can utilize their enthusiasm to turn their visions in reality.