As the President of Youth Initiative Nepal, Anita Thapa works on projects to transform the way youth participate in the civic and political arenas in Nepal. Her work focuses on mobilizing youth and engaging them in the country’s democratization process and transition to peace.
While in the U.S., Anita worked at the Civic Ed Project [7] [8]helping schools foster a climate for civic engagement and learning using the method known as the circle process, which promotes and encourages democratic participation, shared leadership, decision-making and a culture of respect.
Upon returning to Nepal, Anita implemented her follow-on project aimed to create a critical mass of youth to advocate for peace and conflict prevention in Kathmandu. A three-day workshop was held in February 2012 for 24 participants covering topics such as democratization, human rights, conflict and advocacy, collaborative circle approaches and conflict resolution tools. Out of this project, Anita established her own organization focused on civic education and the methodologies learned at the Civic Ed Project. Her organization participated in the implementation of a USAID Nepal program in April 2012, which trained 70 youth in leadership, networking and conflict mitigation.