This video is about Sumana Shrestha. Please watch full video for this motivational history.
Vocal: Sonika Maharjan
#SumanaShrestha #Biography #Motivational
Sumana Shrestha was born and grown up in Samakhushi, Kathmandu. She went to Saraswoti School Chhetrapati. Those days the facility of the vehicle was not very accessible and roads were also not pitched.
Every morning with the massive backpack, she used to walk about an hour to reach school, so basically two hours a day.
She have always been a problem child as she never fitted into the pre-determined and expected behaviors of girl child of any typical Nepali family. In School, though she always ranked first, she says “I never fitted in the first girl category image. I was always a back-bencher, and this is also the reason why I feel and can say very authentically that our education system fails.”
She lost her friend in 9th grade because her friend did not pass the exam. She thought it was so bad that it was worthwhile to die rather than to say “Screw You education system. Just because of ranking, Sumana Shrestha won’t believe that she is not capable enough.”
She says“A lots of reasons why I am the way I am it’s because of what I have seen while I was growing up!”
These incidents have shaped her to be the rebel that She is.
Sumana has degree in Economics from Bryn Mawr College and MBA from MIT, USA. Sumana Shrestha aged 35, is the founder of Carpool Kathmandu and Medication for Nepal.She was by Profession a Management Consultant. She returned to Nepal after April 2015 Nepal Earthquake. Sumana had started her earthquake relief while she was still in the USA. Upon return to Nepal a month later, she continued to support the on-going relief and recovery works. She is currently ensuring necessary medications are reaching the most rural areas.
It was her idea that assisted and gave hope to others during a crisis. Sumana Shrestha initiated Carpool Kathmandu group on Facebook that helped people find a ride to their destination when resources were scarce and having money was not enough. A firm believer of the power of humanity and compassion,
Everything that she did in Nepal was mostly because there was a need for it. During the economic blockade in 2015, she was walking around and couldn’t find public vehicles. She saw lots of empty private vehicles passing by and thought – why not?
She would not hesitate to ask for the ride but lots of other people might hesitate. Due to the sense of awkwardness that we had, she felt a need to break it and that was the platform.
She was pretty sure of having similar platform in Nepal. She searched for it and asked her friends about it. They replied, “There is no such platform.” She then said, “I am gonna start it.”
During the unofficial Nepal-India blockade, she started “Medication for Nepal (MFN)” with a mission to provide access to medical drugs and supplies in remote areas of Nepal. MFN built a web-based platform that captures information about medicine shortages in remote areas of Nepal and enable these customers to direct their charitable funds in a very transparent, efficient and low-cost manner. Medication for Nepal was mentioned by Barack Obama during his speech in Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
Currently she is involved in tourism related startup and continuing with her work in medication for Nepal and Carpool. An aspiring entrepreneur is what she calls herself.
So,Who is Sumana Shrestha for you?
She is a person who has very strong opinions of how she views the world.
She is a fun person. She loves just chilling and relaxing but at the same time she realizes that there are so many problems that each of us can solve. And it would not be worthwhile to continue living without even trying to tackle some of the problems.
She says “I definitely question a lot. I never accept answers that this is how things should be. I am a straight shooter. The easiest way to do business or handle relationship is – when information is not asymmetric the outcome is always the best.”
What does she enjoy as recreation?
She plays futsal, badminton. She does lots of crazy sports and hangs out with her grandmother. She loves simplicity in her life.
Her mantra that she lives by is You should not be married to your approach that you refuse to change based on new information. Also, failure does not mean you are stupid, you will learn.
Her message to aspiring entrepreneurs is “Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t let anybody discourage you. Figure out what you are passionate about.
Entrepreneurship is not for everybody it’s a very uphill battle and affects lots of aspects of life but at the same times it’s super exciting.
So,if you want to do something, you don't have to wait for government or anyone, you can do it yourself, and this is the basic concept of Sumana Shrestha: DO IT YOURSELF NEPAL.”
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