Nepal

Grassroots Comics now have many fans in Nepal as well! In 2005 a Comics Workshop was organised in Kathmandu for children of the South Asian countries including Afghanistan. The workshop was organised in collaboration with Save The Children, Sweden.

Participants from different parts of the sub-continent spoke different languages. There were interpreters to help them through the process. The excitement to learn and create their own comics was such that as soon as the session began, even the interpreters started drawing and completed their own comics. The workshop ended with an exhibition of the comics prepared. The idea of comics was appreciated and liked by all. Saurav Shreshtra, the interpreter for the Nepal group, after this workshop teamed up with one of the participant Nirijana Bhatta and organised a workshop for 24 children of Hatemalo Sanchar-a children’s organisation in August 2005. The result was overwhelming and the mode of comics proved to be convincing. So from then onwards, the team of two organised many more workshops later in 2005 and 2006. Two more new trainers Santosh Maharjan and Pinky Bijayananda joined the team and helped to spread the grassroots comics in Nepal. In 2007 the group got invitation from outside their own network. Two organizations-CWISH and Loo Niva- invited this group to organise similar workshops. So far, the group has trained 172 children and youth in the art of comics making. These comics’ have been published in ‘Sunkeshra’, a monthly children’s magazine which is widely distributed in different parts of Nepal.  And also, 10 thousand copies of magazine ‘Bal Sansar’ (Children’s World) special Comics edition has been published.

The group has also exhibited these comics in public places on Children's Day (August 20, 2005) in the premises of District Development Office, Lalitpur and on New Year 2007 at Chabahil Chowk, Kathmandu.