Interaction with Visitors under Students US Speaker Program

With a motive to have an open discussion on issues concerning to youth in Nepal and United States and discuss about the cross cultural differences among these countries Alexandria Ellison and Maria Perry visited USYC members. Total 35 members participated in the open discussion that was held on 26^th August at Innovation Hub, Teku. The program mainly focused on the impact of earthquake in Nepalese lifestyle, Nepalese politics, American politics and importance of social networking sites to disseminate information.  The program made the first move with a brief introduction session. For Alexandria , Nepal was the very first Asian country she had visited and she was thrilled by the wonderful architecture of buildings in Kathmandu, vibrancy of colors throughout  and the spices used in the foods in Nepal.

Maria highlighted in the pivotal role of social networking sites in order to render aids and grants from countries worldwide. Sharing her own anecdotes she also highlighted on the importance of facebook and other medias as it had helped them to donate money to earthquake victims.  She stated that in order to bring lives back to normalcy the major focus should be driven towards promotion of tourism. Comparing to Haiti, Nepal was already known for its pristine beauty and people were attracted towards the country pre-earthquake. She was happy and pleased to see the youths carrying the responsibilities themselves in their arms rather than depending on someone else. She strictly believes that a nation doesn’t require foreign grants for development but it does act as a helping hand. She also emphasized on the proper documentation and recording of the events as these documents will help in future reference and help our future generations to have well acquaintance with it.

On the other hand Alexandria amplified on the importance of grass root organizations to address and cope up with the crisis resulted due to earthquake. She also highlighted briefly about the American Politics and election system and the current presidential election situation. Along with the political talks, the guests were also very much interested to know about the efforts made by the USYC members regarding the relief and restoration after the devastating earthquake of April 25^th, 2015. They also conferred on the role of government during the earthquake. They also highlighted that the political situation existing in Nepal is really troublesome in compared to that of Europe’s and United States. With this the program which had kicked off at 2:00 p.m came to an end.