At 4:30 AM on a gloomy Friday morning in Frankfurt, Aman Bhattarai gets on a conference call with his colleagues to identify final technical issues before he steps into the virtual stage.
For the next three days, he will be coordinating more than 60 young people from Nepal and 20 international experts from around the world to take part in NEPALVSCOVID19, a Virtual Design Thinking challenge aimed at building ideas on Nepal’s post-pandemic recovery in the themes of Community, Education, Business and Public Health.
Designed off the globally acclaimed Design Thinking methodology, the challenge was organised 17-19 April by The Impact Week in collaboration with the Lufthansa Group and King’s College in Nepal. Since its inception in 2015, Impact Week continues to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging economies as the basis for sustainable growth. This was the second Impact Week in Nepal.
“To have young Nepali minds from around the world collaborate with top mentors locally and internationally to design creative solutions to the problems brought about by COVID-19 is a humbling and gratifying experience,” says Narottam Aryal of King’s College, Nepal.