Kathmandu, Nepal (22 February 2013). Professional Development and Research Centre (PDRC) organized a graduation ceremony of the first cohort of its PDRC-CECI Innovative Internship Program at COZY Foodland located in Kalanki, Kathmandu. This is a six months internship program launched by PDRC in partnership with the Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) through its Uniterra program. The internship period also consists of two months training of English language, computer essentials, and administrative skills. The ceremony was dignified with the presence of PDRC board members, Uniterra representative, intern hosting organizations and the interns.

PDRC executive director Mr. Birendra Vishwokarma threw light on the objective of the training program. He highlighted the fact that female inclusion was emphasized and so was the result as four out of seven candidates were females. According to him, besides two months of training, PDRC also provided in-house training on team building, administration, report writing, and organizational culture through its experienced board members who are engaged in national and international development organizations located in Nepal.

Then came the turn for experience sharing starting from Sagun Bista, Senior program officer at Uniterra program in CECI. She shared the inspiring history of how CECI came into existence and how it came a long way in an organizational manner. She unfolded the “hand to hand “story of PDRC and CECI despite the differences in thematic areas. She was jubilant and satisfied that all the interns showed the thrust for continuity and the determination for the goal accomplishment.

It was time for the presentation from interns. The group presentation set off with “member introduction” part of the presentation by one of the trainees, Suresh Mijar who worked in Natural Resource Development Center (NRDC) as an intern. The first part was followed by Santosh Swarnakar, who mentioned the objectives of the internship program. His focus was that the market is competitive and this kind of program can enhance eligibility to compete in the professional battlefield. Another trainee, Anita Bhusal shared the experience as the full of variety and put forward the field visit of hers to Dolakha. Another intern Nirmala Purkuti highlighted the areas for future improvement. She worked for DWO. Praveen Kumar Paswan, another intern talked about the inspirational and dramatic improvement due to the training and internship with the realization “learning starts with birth and ends with death”. Similarly, another intern Kaushila Devi Bishwakarma shared her experience in terms of internship and recommended that internship should be made compulsory and the duration should be elongated. The presentation ended with the sweet and all-inclusive acknowledgment of last presenter, Ganga Devi Sunar.

Similarly, the certificates of graduation were presented to the graduates followed by the resuming of experience sharing of the intern’s immediate supervisors. Manna Sainju from CECI’s PRAN project talked about the impact made by her intern Kaushila and her dedication and admitted that they too learned a lot form the interns. Other supervisors, shraddha Chakradhar, representative of NRDC shared that the interns were too hard-working and it’s just the lack of opportunities that are coming on their way of advancement.  Mr. Chakra Man Biswokarma, President of DWO, insisted that PDRC is the milestone in making of the competent workforce in the society and paid gratitude to both parties, PDRC and CECI for such admirable task. Pointing lack of education as a reason behind exploitation, DWO president mentioned the problem in the Nepalese education system that comes out as the result of poor family background and social and economic hazards. He highlighted the miserable employment rate and degree of inclusion of Dalit youth in the government sector and appealed all the stakeholders to give hand in this mission of uplifting Dalit with the message for the interns that learning is the life long process and you should make the optimum utilization of the opportunities you get. Similarly, Mr. Bhim BK, PDRC vice president and one of them who trained the interns said that there has been a remarkable improvement in the students in terms of presentation and public speaking and also mentioned that the new challenge from now is a nice job placement and the student should have a non- ending curiosity for it. Similarly, PDRC secretary Mr. Ram Charmakar conveyed the vote of thanks to all the parties and attendants and expressed his satisfaction that despite hurdles and challenges, the program has been a successful one.

In her final statement, PDRC president Kamala Hemchuri emphasized the need for the development of all communities to build a prosperous nation. She further said that the culture of respect to diversity can only lead the nation towards social equity and economic prosperity. She also urged the government to play a central role to empower socially excluded groups. Thanking CECI for cooperation, the president wrapped up the program with the aim of establishing the interns as the “ role model” for others on whom the society can feel proud of and so as the nation.

The program was conducted by PDRC program manager Rup Sunar.