A Campaign for change – Strengthening the voices of people through Social media

Sushma Pokhrel, an 18-year-old girl, started her girl’s activist journey in Girls’ Empowerment Program (phase I) as a peer educator, who was raised in an ordinary family who plays a key role in supporting girls from her community, has been recently raising social awareness message through short movies in different social platforms especially on YouTube. The good work of Girls’ Empowerment Program became the focus on the social awareness short movies. The networks are already using her social media channels to the material, trying to reach as many people who need advice and encouragement for raising awareness of social issues.

“Throughout the program, I had the chance to participate in various training, but the photography and videography training provided by GEP has increased my enthusiasm to participate in filmmaking and acting,” mentioned Sushma. Sushma has been continuing to work to promote awareness among key groups in Devchuli as well, with a focus on social awareness messages on YouTube. She explains how her GEP experiences and interactions prepared her for her present career, which involves working for the people to raise awareness through short films. Sha can now reflect on how far she has come in terms of self-assurance and firmness.

Her neighborhood used to say a lot of negative things in front of her family and speak out against her field of interest, but instead of being discouraged, she found the strength and developed energy within to prove that she can be something other than just a girl and now her neighbors frequently watch her short movies and get a social awareness message from them. “Concept delivery for the script and acting might not always be easy or a good time, being in communities and seeing people, especially girls, not practicing or understanding the importance of social awareness makes me really sad, as well as enthusiastic and courageous, because this enthusiasm and courage that I explore, and what I do with it, will translate in to the transformation,” added Sushma.

Sushma can now observe the change and see how girls in her communities achieve more self-confidence in their abilities, and decisions. Sushma continued, “The inspiration came out of a training on photography and videography provided by GEP. I didn’t know any other medium where photography, videography, storytelling, editing, and many more converge so well. Girls need to be involved in the decisions, it’s their future, and she believes it is having an opportunity to live with and work alongside with girls to empower people through any sector is really unique, and she is pleased that she is part of that now and going forwards. There’s a lot that people can learn from being somewhere and being more connected to the world, which is why she thinks that people can really benefit from awareness people on social issues.

“I’m passionate about the social awareness as there is no way that I could be here without it” says Sushma.