A team representing Himalayan Whitehouse School was declared the winner of Uniting The Youth 2025 last month for their project “Maya ko Katero”, receiving a cash prize of 50,000. The team presented a detailed prototype for building shelters for street dogs across Kathmandu, reflecting a vision of compassion and long-term coexistence between humans and animals. Their project not only impressed the judges with practical solutions but also underscored the importance of nurturing empathy and responsibility among young people, encouraging them to see street animals not as a problem to be managed, but as fellow beings with a right to safety and care. The panel, including prominent figures such as Anil Keshary Shah, Shrinkhala Khatiwada, Srichchha Pradhan and Parakram Rana, highlighted how events like this play a crucial role in sensitising young minds to animal welfare
Uniting The Youth 2025 was organized by Aatmoutsarga, an animal welfare NGO founded on January 25, 2020. Over 500 students from 15 different schools in the capital put their ideas forward on the UTY 2025 problem statement, “How can we reduce cruelty and increase compassion towards street animals in our cities by changing human behaviour?”, from which 5 schools made it to the final round. Fueled by entertainment as well, the event included musical performances by different bands, fun games, and other activities to keep the audience engaged.
Initiated by Pratibha Gurung from the town of Dharan in the eastern part of the country at the age of 19, the organization has been working towards the welfare of vulnerable street animals. Despite its establishment during peak COVID-19 and the challenges of limited resources, her resilience and passion for the cause led to its effective execution.
Now, Aatmoutsarga has facilitated over 2,000 vaccinations, spayed more than 800 animals, and provided healthcare facilities and medical treatments to more than 1,000 stray animals, according to the organization.
Karnali province govt introduces Animal Welfare Standards-2080
Although the concept of rescue homes and shelters is common in approaching the problem of stray animals, the Aatmoutsarga team does not fully guarantee the reliability of this mindset. They believe that these traditional approaches are only effective in the short run. In the long run, coexistence between human beings and stray animals should be practiced. Similarly, such traditional rehabilitation systems cannot feasibly accommodate all stray animals.
Therefore, they have been strongly advocating for proper involvement of community members and their coordination. They underscore that with the existing prejudice in our country regarding stray animals and the lack of proper facilities for them, their major goal has been to provide effective awareness to all.
Despite their objective of replacing shelter culture, the organization realises the significance of taking initiatives to build shelter homes for stray animals in the present condition. Therefore, they have rescued and provided shelter to many animals and have also conducted feeding programs regularly. To execute their primary goal of creating a safe environment for street animals beyond contemporary methods, they started their initiative “Project Ashraya”. Project Ashraya is a fusion of traditional shelter systems with an innovative approach that requires the involvement of community members too. On government land they acquired through the municipality, they are in the process of building different personal shelters for stray animals. Instead of having designated individuals or workers to oversee the animals, they require the involvement of community members to feed and monitor them. Through their awareness programs and initiatives, they have developed a trustworthy relationship with community members in the locality who have committed to their duties of looking after the stray animals in Project Ashraya.
So far, the NGO’s operations have been funded by donations from private companies within the country. With the increasing exposure of the organization, their responsibilities have also risen, which comes with financial demands as well. They also spoke about their hopes for simpler access to dollars for donations.
Laws in Nepal prohibit cruel treatment of animals and birds. The National Penal (Code) Act, 2017 strictly prohibits any person from beating or torturing any animal or bird. Section 290 of this Act bans people from causing animals or birds to carry a load beyond their capacity, walk or run beyond their ability, or be treated cruelly or mercilessly.
This law makes a person committing the offences liable to a sentence of imprisonment for up to three months or a fine of up to five thousand rupees, or both.
However, recurring incidents of mistreatment of animals show that a large section of people do not appear to be changing their behaviour towards these innocent creatures.
While discussing government initiatives, the organization’s representatives mentioned indifference from authorities and lawmakers towards the issue, based on their experience. Despite the formulation of laws protecting animals from abuse, the lack of awareness among such institutions regarding their existence was a matter of concern for the NGO. One of the representatives of the organization, Utsav Shrestha, stated, “Even providing space—if not financial support—for organizations like us and empowerment in many other ways from the government can be highly appreciated and motivating.”
They also emphasised the religious importance of animals in our society and how it should be extended to those that are not domesticated or sheltered as well. Addressing the necessity of equal treatment and concern for stray animals will help avoid problems of public health and safety caused by biting incidents, road accidents, and the spread of diseases like rabies and parasites.
Officials at Aatmoutsarga said consistent empowerment of youth through their involvement in different events is also one of their priorities. Currently, they have a network of over 1,500 youth members from across the country. They also appoint a school ambassador yearly, who represents the organization in different events and works closely with the internal team. Recently, Bodhita Bhattrai, a 14-year-old from Himalayan Whitehouse IB World School, was selected as the Student Ambassador of the Year 2025. The exposure provided to aspiring youngsters and students through Aatmoutsarga’s opportunities creates a channel to make significant changes in society. Inculcating the idea of unbiased treatment towards stray animals among both youths and the older generation by Aatmoutsarga is remarkable.
The author is an A Level graduate from St Xavier’s College, Maitighar, Kathmandu.
