On a warm afternoon in Kathmandu, I visited the modest but lively office of Bighnaharta Nepal. The room hummed with energy: laptops open, papers strewn across tables, and young people discussing projects with an inspiring intensity. I was there to meet the team behind the organization, to understand how a youth-led group was tackling some of Nepal’s most pressing challenges in the remote parts of Nepal. Over tea, I had the opportunity to sit down with Gomesh Singh Upreti, Rajiya Banu, and Ankita Shah, and what followed was a conversation that was equal parts insightful, hopeful, and inspiring. Their journey and work is a true testament to the fact that if we look for opportunities in Nepal, there are ample not just for one’s own but the country’s growth and development.
About Bighnaharta Nepal
Bighnaharta Nepal (BN) is a youth-led not-for-profit organization established in 2019. The organization actively addresses climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity conservation, and livelihood improvement, with a focus on empowering women and youth. BN takes a holistic, community-driven approach, fostering nature-based solutions, alternative energy, social entrepreneurship, and advocating for sustainable policy changes. By integrating innovative solutions and grassroots involvement, BN works to build resilience, enhance living standards, and ensure social equity across Nepal.
Meet the Team
Gomesh Singh Upreti, Co-founder and Director of Programs
Gomesh holds degrees in Business Administration and Anthropology and has over a decade of experience in the social development sector. He specializes in project management, design and implementation, community sensitization, fundraising, and monitoring and evaluation. Under his leadership, BN implements various projects across Nepal.
Rajiya Banu, Co-founder and Director of Operations
Rajiya has been instrumental in establishing BN’s vision and mission. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Political Science. In addition to being BN’s Co-founder and Vice President, she works as the Office Secretary at QUEST-Nepal.
Ankita Shah, Director of Partnerships, Outreach, and PR
Ankita is also an Advisor of Youth and International Relations to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Government of Nepal. She holds a master’s degree in Crisis Management and has over six years of experience in the development sector.
Q&A
Q: Why the name “Bighnaharta”?
Rajiya: Vighnaharta literally means “the remover of obstacles.” Nepal faces so many challenges, such as poverty, migration, environmental degradation, and social inequality. We sought a name that reflected our mission: to tackle these issues head-on, not just by discussing them, but by taking concrete action alongside communities.
Q: How did Bighnaharta Nepal start?
Gomesh: Rajiya and I came from political and social activism, particularly with the Bibeksheel Nepali Party. We worked on governance, social, and environmental issues, but over time we realized that activism alone was not enough. We wanted something tangible, something that could have a lasting impact. So in 2018, we started designing programs and planning how to turn our principles into action. Bighnaharta Nepal was officially registered on January 18, 2019. From the beginning, our goal was clear: applied activism that truly improves lives.
Q: What were the first steps you took?
Rajiya: We knew that solutions had to start in the villages. One of our earliest initiatives was in Raksiran, Makwanpur, home to the Chepang community. This marginalized group faced frequent landslides, worsened by unplanned development and abandoned indigenous practices. For generations, the Chepang had planted amriso, a plant that stabilizes soil and prevents landslides, but they had largely stopped growing maize and other crops.
We encouraged them to plant amriso again. To support them, we provided food-for-work, ensuring that families could sustain themselves while contributing to the project. Initially, we worked with 510 households, and within a year, landslides were reduced by about 90 percent. Over four years, we expanded to 1,610 households across multiple wards.
Q: How did you connect this to livelihoods?
Gomesh: Amriso is not just a soil stabilizer; it is also central to the traditional Nepali broom, or kucho. The Chepang had the skill to make high-quality brooms but lacked market access. Previously, they sold a broom for just 10 rupees, barely enough for daily necessities. We helped them reach larger markets, raising the price to 70–75 rupees. This provided families with a stable income while also restoring the value of their indigenous knowledge.
Q: How did this evolve into a social enterprise?
Ankita: Initially, we thought connecting communities to markets would be enough. But we realized Nepal was losing value because raw amriso was sold cheaply abroad, and finished brooms returned at higher prices. Communities were not benefiting fully from their own resources and skills. This led us to establish Agra Industries, a social enterprise that processes brooms locally, adding value while ensuring fair income for the communities.
Agra Industries also allowed us to scale innovations beyond brooms. We now make paper from agro-waste, lokta crafts, and briquettes from leftover plant material, ensuring nothing goes to waste. Every part of the plant is utilized, creating a circular system that strengthens livelihoods and supports environmental sustainability.
Through these initiatives, we aim to serve as a model for social enterprise in Nepal, showing that development can be economically viable, environmentally responsible, and socially empowering. We hope this inspires other communities to leverage local resources and indigenous knowledge for sustainable development. This model shows that the development sector in Nepal can be enterprise-driven, not solely donation-dependent.
Q: What other social or cultural challenges did you notice?
Rajiya: The Chepang community is undergoing rapid cultural and social changes. Children have adopted modern habits, including energy drinks like Red Bull, while traditional foods like chiuri are being lost. Migration and early marriages are also concerns. Our work has to balance cultural preservation, economic empowerment, and environmental sustainability. Reviving indigenous practices like amriso cultivation and traditional broom-making helps reconnect the community with their heritage while creating livelihoods. This also tackles the problem of unemployment and poverty, which often pushes the community to the edges of vulnerability from social, economic and climate perspectives.
Q: Can you tell us more about Amriso and why it is so important to your work?
Gomesh: Amriso is a traditional plant that has been used by the Chepang community for generations. Its roots and stalks are excellent for stabilizing soil, which makes it ideal for preventing landslides in hilly areas. Beyond its environmental role, amriso is central to the Chepang’s cultural and economic life because it is used to make traditional kucho, the Nepali broom. Over time, many households stopped planting amriso to grow other crops like maize, which unfortunately increased the risk of landslides and also disrupted traditional livelihoods. We worked with communities to reintroduce amriso cultivation, combining food-for-work initiatives with training on making high-quality brooms. This helped stabilize the land, revive indigenous knowledge, and create a source of income.
Rajiya: What’s powerful about Amriso is that it embodies both environmental and economic solutions. By using every part of the plant for brooms, paper, or even briquettes, nothing goes to waste. It’s a perfect example of how traditional knowledge and natural resources can be linked to modern social enterprise, benefiting both people and the environment.
Q: What role do women play in your programs?
Ankita: Women are at the center of our efforts. Training women, providing income opportunities, and integrating them into leadership roles changes households and communities. Women gain respect, voice, and agency. This has a profound effect on dismantling patriarchal norms. Carefully selected volunteers train other women, creating a sustainable cycle of knowledge and empowerment. We believe that real change starts with women's empowerment by making women take the lead.
Q: What challenges have you faced, and how do you overcome them?
Gomesh: Funding is a constant challenge. Bureaucracy slows projects, and some community members expect immediate incentives. Technical gaps also exist; for instance, Nepal’s lokta paper quality is not uniform enough for international printing. But we see every challenge as an opportunity for innovation. Partnering with local governments, carefully coordinating youth volunteers, and embedding accountability into our model has allowed us to keep moving forward.
Q: What is next for Bighnaharta Nepal?
Rajiya: Our immediate goal is to build a factory in close partnership with the communities we work with. This factory will serve as a hub for circular economy production, where brooms, paper, handicrafts, and even alternative energy sources like briquettes from plant biowaste are all created under one roof. The idea is that nothing goes to waste and every byproduct is transformed into something of value.
But we see this as more than just a factory. We want it to be a model for how community-based social enterprises can thrive in Nepal. If it works here, it can work in other rural areas too. That is why we plan to replicate this model across the country, tailoring it to the resources and indigenous knowledge of each community. For example, some areas may have stronger traditions in weaving, others in herbal plants or forest products, and our role will be to help them connect those practices to markets in a sustainable way.
In the long term, our vision is to show that social entrepreneurship can be a real driver of Nepal’s development. It can create local jobs, reduce migration pressures, empower women and youth, and build resilience against climate change. We also want to expand into new areas like Mugu and Chitwan’s Madi Valley, where similar challenges exist. The aim is not just to uplift communities but to inspire a movement across Nepal where development is rooted in sustainability, circular economy practices, and the strength of local people themselves.
As our conversation ended, I was treated to a warm lunch and gifted one of their beautiful handmade notebooks, a gesture that felt deeply personal. Walking out with the notebook in hand, I reflected on what I had witnessed. Bighnaharta Nepal is not just removing obstacles; it is creating a blueprint for sustainable, community-driven development. From planting amriso to reviving cultural practices and building a social enterprise, they are proving that real change is possible.
(This article is based on an interview conducted by Nischal Shrestha for Eco Sathi Nepal with Bighnaharta Nepal in August 2025)
