Kathmandu: A year-long Leadership and Inner Well-being – Weekly Sessions, organized at KnK College, Baneshwor, Kathmandu, has successfully concluded, benefiting 47 participants from various professional backgrounds as well as school children. The dual simultaneous programs for the young and elder groups also introduced the participants to the evolving media landscape and the impacts of misinformation and disinformation through the Digital Smartness sessions.
Jointly organized by Gargi Media House and Mandala Bihani—a dynamic network of youth leaders, activists, and journalists—the program for children, termed HappySaturdays, would run from 11 AM until 1 PM, after which the elders would take over for two more hours, on Saturdays.
“This program greatly broadened my horizon and made me more confident and resilient, both as a journalist and as an individual,” said Samjhana BK, a journalist based in Kathmandu. “I absolutely loved the self-help mental tips, interactive sessions, discussions, and debates, as well as the program’s flexibility, which allowed me to attend without being present every week.”
Another participant Binita Rijal, a video journalist at Nepal Television, recalled how she initially lacked confidence in public speaking. “But the environment there was so cool. By the third week, I felt at ease and understood it’s all about practice,” she shared.
On the other hand, HappySaturdays engaged 22 participants from both private and community schools, who practiced meditation, positive self-affirmation, and learned leadership skills such as interview techniques, debates, and speech delivery, apart from showcasing their talents in singing, dancing, and directing plays.
“HappySaturdays really turned out to be a happy experience. Everything we did there was so valuable. While our school education focuses on scores and theory, this program was about us—our potential and behavior, our society, the economy, our aspirations, and the world around us. The sessions on inner well-being, spirituality, and meditation were incredibly insightful,” said Siddhartha Ghimire, a 9th grader at GEMS School, Lalitpur.
Parents’ observation resembled the experience of their children. Karuna Shrestha, a resident of Thapagaun, Baneshwor, shared that her 8-year-old son, Eric, initially lacked confidence and enthusiasm, but the appreciation he got there deeply touched him. “The environment at HappySaturdays really changed him. He even won prizes there, something that had never happened at school, which gave him a huge confidence boost.”
The program, which ran from November 2023 to January 25, 2025, with a few weeks of gaps during festivals, was designed and led by journalist and trainer Anjali Subedi, Managing Director of Gargi Media House, and supported by yoga instructor Anita Sunar and media practitioners Praveen Yadav and Meena Pandey, while KnK College provided the venue for free.
According to Subedi, the sessions for women were a deliberate effort aimed at empowering them, but the initiative for children was taken following a single mother’s serious concerns over the mental health of her 13-year-old child. “We had planned to run a leadership class for women, which was actually inspired by what I learned from the Asia Journalism Fellowship, and it was basically for those working in the media sector,” she said. “But one of the participants, as soon as she got enrolled in our program, asked if we could do something for children as well. That was how the dual programs were designed and ran free of charge,” she said.
Highlighting the importance of inner well-being, spirituality, and leadership, Dr. Resh Bahadur Basnet, Founder and Principal of KnK College, stated that the college was proud to support the cause. “In today’s stressful times, we all need connections where we feel positive, free, and spiritual. Also, children learning more about life and society is significant. We’re really happy to provide our space for such a noble drive.”
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