Gen Z Frustration Turned into a Shared Dream

Many young people in Nepal travel abroad after high school to study or find work. In their hometown of Bardaghat, Rajan Pandey and his friends observed that young people lacked opportunities to explore their abilities and turn their ideas into action.

They had plenty of potential but lacked a common space where they could meet, discuss their challenges, and find solutions together.
The political situation in Nepal also contributed to the frustration among young people. This was part of the backdrop for the Gen Z movement, explains Rajan Pandey, who is the chairperson of the youth center Yuwa Kachahari.

 
-We knew that the young people in Bardaghat had plenty of potential, but they weren’t given enough opportunities to explore it and show what they were capable of.

The political situation in Nepal also created frustration among young people, and that was one of the factors behind the Gen Z movement, says Rajan Pandey.

-We realized we needed to connect with one another, but we didn’t really know where or how to start.

The young people spoke with older siblings, teachers, and others with more experience. They agreed that something had to change, but lacked a concrete path forward.
The opportunity arose through Yubraj Chapagain from the NGO SCDC, who had visited a youth center in Denmark. When he returned home, he saw the potential in testing the idea in Bardaghat. He therefore invited a group of young people to a workshop where they could explore what a youth center might look like in their local community.

For Rajan Pandey, the workshop was a turning point.

-Until then, we knew that young people needed a place to meet, but we didn’t have a clear idea of how to create it.

The workshop gave us the opportunity to come together, talk about our challenges, exchange ideas, and start imagining what a youth center in Bardaghat could look like.

— That was the first concrete step.

Snapshots from the trip: See more from the trip to Nepal and how Huset Lucerna brings Nepal to Danish youth here: Instagram

The young people will shape the youth center themselves

This marked the beginning of Yuwa Kachahari, which the young people describe as a second home. The collaboration with the Lucerna Youth Culture Center in Holbæk was intended to help them turn their shared dream into an initiative they could carry forward on their own.
Katrine Ibsen, the day-to-day manager of the Lucerna Youth Culture Center, traveled to Bardaghat with five young people from the youth center in Holbæk, with support from SkoleliviNepal. Over the course of two weeks, they shared their experiences with organizing a youth center, planning activities, and building a community where young people take responsibility themselves.
About 30 young people gathered to meet them. Together, they began to flesh out the ideas and assign tasks. Among other things, they worked on organization, communication, recruitment, and outreach to parents.

For the Danish youth, it was also a learning experience to realize that the experiences from Holbæk could not simply be transferred directly to Nepal. Here, parental support plays a crucial role in determining whether young people can participate in activities. Therefore, involving the parents became an integral part of the work.
Lucerna also helped facilitate meetings with, among others, the mayor and the local business council, where the young people could present their ideas. But it was important that the local youth continue to set the direction.

For example, when the group declined a meeting with a local businessperson because they were concerned it might be exploited politically in the run-up to a municipal election, they demonstrated that they themselves were able to assess what was best for their initiative.
For Katrine Ibsen, it’s precisely about giving young people trust and support without taking control away from them.

 
-The important thing is that there’s someone who trusts the young people. There’s someone who’s willing to have their back.

She made it clear that this was the young people’s own project. Lucerna could share experiences and continue to provide support, but it was up to Yuwa Kachahari to find its own path.

A Youth Center Without a Building

Since the workshop, the young people in Bardaghat have continued working on their own. They organized an introductory program where they talked about Yuwa Kachahari and explained why they believe the town needs a youth center. They have also created a WhatsApp group that now connects more than 100 interested young people and organized small activities and gatherings.
But the road ahead is not without challenges. Many young people leave their hometown after 12th grade to study abroad. This makes it difficult to maintain a stable group of young people who can help develop the initiative in the long term. At the same time, finances are a constraint. Many in the group are students, while the young people who have jobs often have limited incomes and family obligations.
It is also necessary to build trust with organizations that might be able to support the project financially. It takes time to demonstrate that the initiative is credible and capable of carrying out its plans.
That is why Yuwa Kachahari does not yet have its own physical building. For now, the young people are focusing on building connections and organizing activities with the resources they have available.
Still, they haven’t given up on their dream.

-A youth center isn’t defined solely by its walls or its building. It begins with the people who come together, share a vision, and support one another.

-For us, the young people standing together today are already the heart of Yuwa Kachahari, says Rajan Pandey.

Nepal in Holbæk

For Lucerna, the project didn’t end when the six travelers returned home. An important part of the work was also to share their experiences with people in Denmark and give them a glimpse into the lives of young people in Nepal.
That’s why Lucerna organized Big Nepal Day, where guests could watch a mini-documentary about the project, hear a presentation on Nepal, attend the opening of a photo exhibition, and enjoy Nepali food prepared using recipes and spices that the young people had brought home from Bardaghat.
The various activities offered guests multiple perspectives on Nepal. The documentary described the collaboration, the presentation provided historical and social background information, and the food created an opportunity to meet and talk.

The photo exhibition had been created in collaboration with the Nepali youth. During a workshop titled What is youth to you?, they explored what it means to be young in Nepal and Denmark. They talked about dreams, everyday life, and reality, and translated their thoughts into texts, words, and images. Afterward, they went out into Bardaghat and took photos together. Katrine Ibsen explains:

-It was very important to us that we didn’t come home just to report on a 14-day trip, but to share a country, a generation, and a project that was just taking its first breaths!

The food, too, had a direct connection to the collaboration. During a cooking workshop in Nepal, the Danish youth learned to prepare classic Nepali dishes in the Bardaghat style. The recipes were brought home so that guests in Holbæk could taste some of what the young people had experienced together.

A Universal Youth

On Big Nepal Day, guests were surprised by Nepal’s history, among other things, and asked questions about the differences between the countries and their societies. The photo exhibition sparked another conversation: Do young people across national borders actually share the same dreams?
Some guests asked directly whether youth is truly universal. For Lucerna, the answer was yes. Everyday life and opportunities may vary widely, but young people can still dream of some of the same fundamental things.

The food also sparked curiosity. Several guests were pleasantly surprised by the Nepalese dishes, especially the goat dish, which isn’t very common in Denmark.

For Katrine Ibsen, it was important that the guests not only gained insight into the project itself but also became curious about Nepal and the lives of young people far from Denmark.

-I hope the guests went home with a basic understanding of the project, of the young people’s lives, and of Nepal as a country and society.” And that they were inspired to learn more about a place that is otherwise far from Denmark.

She herself feels that the trip still plays a significant role in her daily life. Because Lucerna remains in contact with the young people in Bardaghat, she is often reminded of the differences between their lives and the things they have in common.

An International Family

For Rajan Pandey, the collaboration with Lucerna has also meant new relationships across national borders. In his closing message to Lucerna, he describes how Yuwa Kachahari is not just about creating a youth center, but also about forging friendships and expanding the community.

- Today, I feel that our international family has grown, and that makes me genuinely happy. Distance is never a barrier when we share the same spirit and believe in the same dreams.
The connection between the Danish and Nepalese youth continues, and Lucerna is planning more activities to bring Nepal closer to Holbæk. One of the dreams is to set up a section in the youth center’s kitchen inspired by this collaboration-an interactive, Nepalese-style space where stories and impressions from Nepal can become part of everyday life.

Meanwhile, the young people in Bardaghat continue their efforts to bring more young people together around Yuwa Kachahari. They have not yet secured their own building, but they have taken the first steps toward creating what they were missing: a community where young people can meet, support one another, and begin to shape their own future.