In the home of Everest, 51 tech girls take their country to the future

Building new startups, and winning. Photo credit: Techcamp Nepal.

Nepal. The tiny country is best known to the world as the home of Mount Everest, the stuff of many trekking inspirations, and for being the only Hindu nation in the world.

But romanticized lores aside, placed between two giant economic powers – China and India – Nepalis have long lived a life of poor economic growth, political instability, and stalled development.

The Himalayan country only recently got a Constitution, and is just beginning to emerge from the effects of being cut off from the rest of the world for a very long time. With these changes have come the modern entrepreneurial drive, and the understanding of tech as a tool to take the country to the future.

See: In the shadow of Everest, a Startup Valley begins to emerge

Not surprisingly for a developing country, the gender wage gap in the country is in the bottom half of the world rankings – Nepal ranks 110th of 144 countries surveyed by the United Nations. Long-standing traditions, conservatism, and a general lack of amenities are to blame, locals say. But ask the Nepali women of today, and it’s easy to see how they’ve decided to take these challenges, and, in true entrepreneurial spirit, plan to turn them into opportunities.

Tech is their tool.

A tech camp for women

Girl power. Photo credit: Techcamp Nepal.

Last week, the Ellaine Memorial Foundation, in partnership with the Microsoft Innovation Center Nepal and the US Embassy in Kathmandu, got together feisty entrepreneurs to a tech camp for women – the first such drive in the country.

About 300 women applied for a spot at the camp, 51 of whom got in after a grueling five-day bootcamp.

There were startup ideas ranging from everything to apps that aim to promote a more open government, to building new-age smoke detector systems, to mobile wallets, to selling homemade goods online.

“Our problem is a lack of resources and mentorship. We don’t get mentors at the right time for the right things,” said Melisha Ghimire, an attendee and the founder of Echo Innovators, which makes solutions for web and mobile designs and development.

That problem was solved to some extent as Microsoft gathered mentors from countries all around the world – Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and more.

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