Tsechu Dolma - Building Resiliency in the Himalayas

“I am an Himalayan American,” says Teschu Dolma when asked about her nationality. At only 25, Dolma’s work and achievements are mountainously high, just like the terrains she loves to work in. A graduate from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, US, Dolma has been actively involved in social work from a very early age. She is the Founder/Director of the Mountain Resiliency Project, an organization which addresses “the poverty and food insecurity prevalent in mountain communities.” She has also co-founded and developed women and girls economic and social empowerment for ACHA Himalayan Sisterhood in New York and advised UNDP in Colombia on natural resource management and impact on indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities.

Her work as a social entrepreneur has been recognized by many organizations and institutions globally and the awards and recognitions she has received are numerous. She is a 2014 Brower Youth Award Winner, a 2013 Udall Scholar for Environmental Policy, 2012 New York Needs You Fellow and a 2009 ELLA Baker Fellow. She was named one of the 2015 NBC News International Women’s Day: the Legends and Leaders to Know.

With so much experience and recognition gained in such less time, this young environmental scientist and anthropologist of Tibetan origin who was born in Nepal and grew up in Kathmandu and Sindhupalchowk, has been incessantly working to address the poverty and food insecurities in the mountain communities of Nepal.

As the founder of the Mountain Resiliency Project, Dolma has been recently listed in the Forbes 30 under 30 : Social Entrepreneurs, an achievement which is the very first for any person from this region. With the bold idea to “diminish negative impacts of climate change on Himalayan communities by developing strategies for food, energy, and talent security,” the Mountain Resiliency Project is working with communities living in the the rugged terrains of the high altitude mountains in Nepal to build climate change resilience.

Currently based in the United States, Tagsplanet managed to briefly talk to this young and dynamic social entrepreneur in between her busy schedule.

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Excerpts from her rendezvous with Tagsplanet :

• The Beginning

I started this when I was 16 and studying in college in the US. From early childhood, my religion, culture and family always taught me to give back to the society. Whatever you gain in life, you share the privilege with others. Because of these values, I felt it unfair to see how my childhood friends were were living and how their lives were so different from mine just because of the resources available to us. Therefore, when my college provided resources for me to do summer projects, I chose to come back to Nepal do small agricultural projects in the remote areas of Nepal, like Mustang. This is how it started and the concept for the Mountain Resiliency Project was developed.

• Managing the resources

I have always believed in sharing information with everyone. After my first trip to Nepal’s mountainous region, I started sharing everything I had seen here with the people in the US. I started doing presentations and talking about food and water insecurities, climate change and identity politics. By sharing my ideas with people, I found donors and foundations who supported us. It was basically mostly word of mouth in the beginning and I am fortunate enough to have gotten seed grants for our projects in the beginning stage.

• Areas

The Mountain Resiliency Project is working currently in Mustang, Baglung, Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Rasuwa, Manang, Dolpa and Solukhumbu. We are basically focused on developing the agriculture sector there. We work with the local communities and farmers there on how to reconnect the farmers to value added market chains, how to make farming more lucrative, productive and efficient for remote mountain areas.

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• Changes

In roughly 9 years of our existence, we have managed to create a network of 15,000 farmers. The average income of the farmers has increased by 800%. This has improved their standard of living and the children now have better access to education, health care and gender equality. We have managed to generate a net benefit of $25 million the in last 9 years .

• Challenges faced

As a young woman, whenever I got to district offices or community based organisations here in Nepal, I can never go forward and say that I am the founder or CEO of an organization, I have to hide behind another man and pretend that he is running the show. The problem still persists even now after I have managed to achieve so much. The problem of age and gender discrimination still exists in Nepal. There is also a gap between different ethnicities in Nepal. The people of Tibetan Buddhist origins are still treated with a certain amount of foreignness despite us co-existing with our neighbors here for generations. There is a lot of identity politics in Nepal.

• Future

We are with 15000 farmers in our network right now and we are planning to reach a million farmers within the next 3 years. We would also like to scale up to 12 more districts in Nepal and expand to Northern India if possible. Also, we want to turn the $25 we have to $250 million within the next 10 years for the benefit of the communities we are working with.

• Recognition

I would never feel comfortable introducing myself as a Forbes 30 under 30 person. In the last 3 or 4 years that I have been living in Nepal full time, I have been spending 90% of my time up in the mountains instead of Kathmandu. It was never a priority for me to develop a network in Kathmandu or that what is essentially required for my work. For me, being a part of the community, being underground is so much more important than networking. All the awards, fellowships and recognitions I have received are completely based on the evaluation of my work.

• Forbes 30 under 30

It has been such a blessing and privilege to be a part of this cohort. I have spent time with the other 29 participants and each of them has been equally inspiring to me. I think to be the first Nepali-Tibetan person to be on that prestigious list is inspiring to the other people in our communities as well. To see someone just like you who comes from the same background circumstances reaching this position based completely on her own hard work is more relatable to the youth here. I get a lot of young people emailing and Facebooking me for advices and mentorships. I run mentorship programs here in Nepal and US as well. When we go to entrepreneurship conferences, specially in South Asia, it is mostly men only. I would definitely like to see more women participants and I am working to encourage and inspire them.

• Message

I truly believe that what I am today is because of the people I met in the past and the lessons I learnt from them. I truly believe in sharing the knowledge and experiences with everyone else, specially other young women. My message to the youth and people who want to work in this field is - always say yes to everything. You get so many opportunities in life but you can only grab them if you get yourself out there. Also, seek mentors. Getting training and guidance at an early age is equally very important.

Read more about the Mountain Resiliency Project