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---Doko Didi / Dai Program: An insider's reflections----
Author: Ujwal Thapa, International Coordinator, Nationwide Scholarship Program
Post Date: 12/5/2003

Dear SEBS members,

Thank you all for making the "Doko Didi/Dai" Project proposal a success.

As most of you probably know by now, the Project received all the funding we requested and was assessed as one of the top proposals at the World Bank Grant competition. In the coming days we will be putting the complete project proposal online. We encourage all of our members to view and give suggestions/comments on all aspects of this project (implementation, strategy etc.)

On behalf of the NSP team in Kathmandu, a big, big thank you to the NSP-North America team members - Priya (600B), Anu (600B), Sagar (400B), Aalok (700A) and Laxman (300B) for being the core body behind this project.

This is an exciting moment for all of us, alumni of Budhanilkantha School and for Nationwide Scholarship Program. It truly could (and should) be a defining moment for SEBS.

HERE is how it all started:

Priya and Anu initiated this project proposal in February and Kiran (200B) came up with the wonderful concept of "Doko Dai" ("Doko Didi/Dai"). With Sagar Onta's help along the way, the NSP-NA team pushed us, NSP (Nepal) members, to truly commit to this project. I can still remember Sagar waking me up one morning, with a surprise call from the USA, to talk about this project that I had no idea about. Over the next couple of months, we (Shova (100C), Bijay(300C), Gyanendra (900A) Bhupendra (500B), and I) had hectic meetings with Anu, Aalok and Priya when they came for their short vacation breaks to Nepal, tightening the loose ends of our approach and hammering out the proposal. They went back with our feedback and in collaboration with the other members, Sagar and Laxman (300B), tirelessly and enthusiastically worked on the proposal in North America.

Looking back, chatting online with Laxman, Batsal (500B) about the “Doko” project at 2 am in the night about the project seems to have definitely been worth it.

I, and probably others too, firmly believe that NSP has truly made one of the single most important decisions, in our tenure in NSP, by forming NSP NA and giving them full autonomy to work. I know, in the near future, we will be expecting and hoping for similar lead off projects initiation from you over there.

Thank you, Suraj (200B), for taking the lead in this project. Fortunately for us, you had just stepped down from the position of the president of SEBS and we knew exactly whom to turn to.

Rabindra (200B) has left no stones unturned by going on field visits to see the viability of the whole “Doko” program. Towards the finale of the selection event, Sanjay (200B) and Navin (400B) helped with spicing up the presentations for the Program. Rajan (400B) and Chandra Maan (700B) deserve our appreciation for creating the SEBS and NSP websites respectively for the panelists/judges to look at.

Thank you to everyone else who was also involved in the project in one way or the other – Bisundev (700B), Bishan (900B)...

When Gyanendra and I are not fighting over the future of NSP, we are busy discussing about how to take NSP to the next step. So here we are. We have just entered into the new phase of NSP. I hope both of us will stop bickering for some time now. But not for long before we go at each other again. For constructive changes to happen, we have to constantly think and talk, discuss and try to find ways to go ahead. Stagnation is not an option.

We have crossed one big hurdle here but we know our credibility lies with the successful completion of the project.

I’d like to end by once again extending a special thanks to the people who have relentlessly worked behind this proposal with plain hard work and determination and expected nothing but the success of the project in return.

Sincerely,

Ujwal Thapa
International Coordinator
Nationwide Scholarship Program