Coding for Social Good

Cosog Nepal - Coding for Social Good Nepal - is a registered non-profit organization that aims to bridge the digital divide and promote technology for social good. I co-founded the organization and am currently serving as the Vice President. I've completely taken control of the organization for last 5 months because of president's busy schedule. Below are some of the initiatives I've led:

• Code for Charity: As the lead coordinator for the "Code for Charity" initiative at Cosog Nepal, I'm spearheading an ambitious project to empower over 50 NGOs across Nepal with a strong digital presence. Our current flagship project involves developing a comprehensive website for "Sustainable Actions Afrika," an NGO based in Cameroon, which will impact over 10,000 lives. This international collaboration showcases our commitment to global impact. Our long-term vision is to create a network of 200+ skilled volunteers who can offer pro-bono web development services to NGOs throughout Nepal.
• Digital Literacy: I've taken a leading role in developing and implementing digital and internet literacy programs across Nepal. Personally, I've conducted training sessions at over 20 schools, reaching more than 2,500 students. Currently, I'm focused on scaling this initiative by expanding our team of 25 volunteers and coordinating large-scale outreach events in 8 major cities including Butwal, Biratnagar, Pokhara, Hetauda, and Chitwan and their surrounding areas.
• Career Counseling: I successfully organized and moderated the " Computer Science in +2" event, a comprehensive career guidance seminar attended by over 100 recent SEE graduates. The recorded sessions from this event continue to serve as a valuable resource, having been viewed by hundreds of students seeking guidance in their academic and career choices. During the session, students got an opportunity to explore opportunities in Nepal & Abroad, learn difference between CS in science and management stream and the vast career opportunities in IT field to help them take informed decision. The event was a huge success with engineers from biggest tech company like Apple Inc. sharing their experiences.
• Workshops & Talk Shows: I organized 5 days long workshop on “Web Development” for the over 50 students of Kapilvastu; shared my personal growth story on how I’ve been funding my own educational and other expenses since age 15 and how they can also pursue their higher education without creating financial burden on their family. Recently, I organized an awareness program on GitHub Education and it's benefits to the students interested in Web Development & Open Source.
• Book Donation: Through Cosog Nepal, I've led the initiative to donate engineering entrance preparation books to the high-achieving, low-income students. I collected the books from the donors and distributed them to the students in need. A total of 12 sets (~65 books) were donated to the students.

Glimpses of my outreach activities through Cosog Nepal

Bidhwan

Bidhwan - is a non-profit venture that aims to provide spread awareness about competitions and opportunities to the students of Nepal. Originally started as a offline initiative, we've moved online to reach more students.

• Olympiad Awareness: Conducted Astronomy and Economics olympiad awareness programs at different schools. During the outreach, students learned to use telescope, and syllabus of the olympiad. As a result, over 50 students took part in different olympiads and 3 got selected to represent Nepal at the international stage.
• Hackathon Awareness: Over the last two years, over 30 students took part in national hackathons and international hackathons like NASA Space Apps Challenge, Hashnode Hackathon, and more.
• Summer Program Awareness: Similarly, I shared information about the most reputed summer program called Incubate Nepal in over 5 schools, collaborating with the organizers themselves. Several applied and 10 students got accepted into two summer programs: Incubate Nepal and Uunchai.
• Online Resources Hub: I've created a website to provide details information about the opportunities and resources available for the students. The website can be accessed at bidhwan.tech. Additionally, I send regular newsletters to the students about the new opportunities.

Glimpses of my outreach activities through Bidhwan.

Paperprep - prepare for exams

Paperprep - is an online platform that hosts hundreds of past papers, notes, and other resources for the students of Nepal. I am constantly creating practice papers and provide learning resources for the students to prepare for their exams for the past 2.5 years.

• Problem: After COVID, there were sudden changes in the curriculum after a month of the start of the academic year. The books took time to be published and available across the country. Many students struggled to keep up with the curriculum. To provide the learning and practice materials, I made this platform where I shared my notes, the question papers, the resources I found online, and the pdf formats of books that were made available by the Curriculum Development Center.
  Also, the practice materials for High School Computer Engineering course are not available in the market. I've been collecting question papers since 11th grade from different school and through this platform, I've been sharing the question papers and solutions to the students so they can be prepared.
• Impact: This platform is now being widely used by both teachers and students at different schools. It has 100,000+ reach and impacted over 700 students (in 3 schools) directly.

ICT Club of KMGSS

ICT Club of Kalika Manavgyan Secondary School is a school club that I co-founded in 2021 to organize skill development workshops and competitions for the students. The club aims to provide a fun and engaging environment for the students to learn about technology and computer science.

• Workshops: Organized different workshops on Web Development and Programming. Few sessions were two-weeks long Flutter Language workshop, 3 days long Web Development workshop, and 2 days basic Arduino applications.
• Competitions: Organized different inter and intra school competitions like District Quiz Competition, Science Exhibition, and more. All of the competitions were focused on latest technology and innovations and joined by over 500 students from different schools.

Glimpses of few activities organized by ICT Club during my tenure.

Surakshya - Empowering women

Surakshya - is a powerful react native application developed specifically for women's safety, security, and welfare as part of 8 weeks long summer program called Incubate Nepal. Surakshya is designed with a strong focus on personal safety, offering a range of safety resources for women in an accessible and simplified manner. With this app, women are equipped with the necessary tools to protect themselves. Watch an overview video.

• SOS and quick access: By holding SOS button for 3 seconds, the app sends SMS to the emergency contacts (already configured by user) with the location. The app also has a quick access to camera and microphone to record and securely store the incident.
• Crime visualization: Utilizing crowdsourced data, Surakshya creates a comprehensive map view that visualizes reported incidents, helping users stay informed about the safety of their surroundings. The map visualization also takes into account public access data from online news portals. Surakshya leverages data from Nepal Monitor's dataset on GBV.
• Emergency Contact Information: The app includes essential features for emergency situations, providing quick access to call, WhatsApp, Viber, SMS, and allows you to share your location with trusted contacts and reliable helplines.
• Self-Report Crime Incidents Anonymously: Users can anonymously report crime incidents, making valuable contributions to community safety. These self-reported incidents will also be visible on the map, keeping everyone informed about their surroundings.
• Hospital and Police Stations Directory: We have added a directory of hospitals and police stations, specifically ones where you can report crimes and file cases, ensuring users can easily find nearby medical and emergency assistance during critical times.
• Launch: Presented the app alongside Jeffrey S. Ravel, former head of MIT's history department, and Dr. Amina Singh, a professor at Kathmandu University. With the participation of Harvard and MIT alumni, I shared information about the application to over 100 viewers on Zoom. The app was installed by over 100 users within the first week of launch. The app was also published on play store and has 40+ downloads.

Final Presentation of Surakshya App at Incubate Nepal

Hacktoberfest

Hacktoberfest is DigitalOcean’s annual event that encourages people to contribute to open source throughout October. Hacktoberfest is all about giving back to those projects, sharpening skills, and celebrating all things open source, especially the people that make open source so special. I've participated in Hacktoberfest for the past 2 years and have contributed to over 20+ open source projects.

• Recognition: Hacktoberfest planted two trees (260 kg CO2 offset) in my name in Tanzania as a recognition for contribution to 20+ open-source projects. Also received 21 digital badges from DigitalOcean, Appwrite, and more for the contributions.
• Awareness Program: Organized 4-days long national event called "Sagarmatha Hacktoberfest" for the students of Nepal to participate in Hacktoberfest. The event was attended by over 200 students from different schools and colleges. The event was a huge success with 12 speakers from different companies in Nepal sharing their experiences in open source and how to get started with open source.

Glimpses of my activities through Hacktoberfest & Sagarmatha Hacktoberfest: