Wai Wai Glocal Teen Hero 2019 top 6 Finalists announced

17 August, 2019 : Kathmandu, After a fantastic response from teenagers around the nation, announce the shortlisted top 6 for Wai Wai Glocal Teen Hero 2019.

This year’s competition received over 598 applications, from fascinating teenagers demonstrating the diverse potential of this often under looked age-group of people. The applicants had demonstrated their skills and expertise, and made an impact in their society, from areas like social work to journalism, from robotics to computer programming and from entrepreneurship to community development among others.

Bidhi Mandal (19 years, Entrepreneur, Janakpur; Bikram Parajuli (18, Tech Educator, Pokhara); Lov Panthi (14, Innovator, Rupandehi); Rachin Kalakheti (17, Technopreneur, Makwanpur) ; Samir Phuyal (16, Entrepreneur, Morang); Supriya Maharjan Sapkota (18, Social Activist, Kathmandu) – In alphabetical order have been selected among top 6 candidates for the award, the only national platform in Nepal to recognize and honor the outstanding teenagers.

Glocal Teen Hero is a platform for Nepali teenagers to share their initiation, creativity, and enthusiasm which will then motivate them and more of the other teenagers in the nation to develop an entrepreneurial thinking.

This is the fifth edition of the first ever program designed in the country to recognize dedicated, passionate, and innovative teenagers so as to encourage their initiatives. Bipana Sharma, a 17-year old child rights activist from Sunwal, Nawalparasi; Santosh Lamichhane, a young scientist, Sachin Dangi, Social Activist were felicitated with the First, Second and Third Glocal Teen Hero awards in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively. Similarly, Prashansha KC, Social Activist was felicitated Wai Wai Glocal Teen Hero in 2018.

Started from inside the Kathmandu valley only in the year of inception, the competition this year had reached out to teenagers nationwide and conducted information sessions in various schools and colleges. The reach and interaction with the teenagers was overwhelmingly high reaching to 60000+ teenagers.

To make the program a grand success, this year, Glocal has partnered with Wai Wai as a Title Sponsor; Nepal Tourism Board, Visit Nepal 2020 and Embassy of India as Promotional Partner; UNDP, European Union, Embassy of the United Arab Emirates Kathmandu as Strategic Partner; Soaltee Crown Plaza as an Initiative Partner; Coca-Cola, VOITH, Panchakanya, Annapurna and Honda as Partners. Nepal SBI Bank Ltd. as a Bank Partner, Cozy Home B&B as a Hospitality Partner, Turkish Airlines, Yeti Airlines as Airlines Partner, Prisma Advertising as PR Partner, Sparrow as SMS Partner. King’s College, Chelsea International College, Vidhya Sanskar School as Education Partner and News24 as Broadcast Partner. The initiative is supported by Worldlink, E-sewa, AYON, YUWA, QFX, Opportunity Nepal, Today’s Telegram, Facts Nepal, Nepal Youth Council and View Your Choice.

Partnership with various such organizations working on youth-segment helped the program reach every nook and corners of the country, and ensured no teenagers having talents and potential were left-out from the competition.

The respected 7-member jury panel had shortlisted the 6 amazing teens (ages 13-19) for their achievements, initiations or contributions in any other field outside of their respective school’s or college’s curriculum. The jury panel this year comprises of Mr. Abdullah Tuncer Kececi, General Manager,Turkish Airlines; Mr. Akhanda Bhandari, Editor in Chief, Annapurna; Mr. Ambuj Singh, Country Manager, Coca-Cola Nepal, Mr. Anil Chitrakar, President, SiddharthaInc.; Mr. Rahul Chaudhary, Executive Director, CG Corp Global; Ms. Ritu Vaidya, Managing Director, Vaidya Organization and Mr. Ujjwal Shrestha, Managing Director, Panchakanya Group.

The selection was based on their resume, the evidence, their achievement and impact created.

These six teens will now go through a six-days-long capacity building workshop. The finalists would be individually interviewed by the panel of judges, and SMS voting round has opened that will select THE FANTASTIC TEEN for the year 2019. To vote for the candidates, text the voting code of your favorite finalist to 33001. The voting codes for the finalists are:

Bidhi Mandal– GTH<Space> BM

Bikram Parajuli– GTH<Space>BP

Lov Panthi– GTH<Space>LP

Rachin Kalakheti– GTH<Space>RK

Samir Phuyal– GTH<Space>SP

Supriya Maharjan Sapkota– GTH<Space>SM

Award ceremony of the Wai Wai Glocal Teen Hero 2019 will be held on 1st of September at Soaltee Crowne Plaza in the presence of 250+ personalities of Nepal from different walks of life, such as diplomats, politicians, film stars, entrepreneurs, youth leaders and many more.