Growing greater impact via entrepreneurship in Nepal

Through the years, SMU has focused on nurturing global citizens and future leaders who are intelligent, capable, and confident, and above all, driven by a desire to make a positive impact, both within Singapore and around our region.

This manifests in the many inspiring community service projects that SMU students take charge of and participate in that have made and continue to make a difference in many communities.

One such Overseas Community Service Project (OCSP) is Project Gazaab, which aims to empower youths in Nepal by imparting business knowledge and skills to them, enabling them to realise their potential as entrepreneurs.

For the 12th iteration of the project, 20 SMU volunteers from Project Gazaab Nepal XII made the trek to Nepal’s remote mountain villages from 8 to 23 December 2023, to teach about 360 local students, between 15 and 18 years old, entrepreneurial skills.

Volunteers were involved in the planning and execution of the project from start to finish, introducing activities centred around teaching Nepalese students how to design and present business plans. Besides organising business development workshops, the team also ensured the learning experience was engaging by using activities like charades to help the Nepalese students work on their confidence and public speaking.

Project Gazaab XII was also the perfect platform for an exchange of cultures, an enriching and memorable experience for SMU students set against the glorious Himalayas, as well as bringing much needed focus on helping the Nepalese students.

Coming together as an SMU community to make a difference

The project was one of the OCSP projects funded by SMU donor, Realstar Premier Group Private Limited, which, on 22 May 2023, made a generous donation of S$1,000,000 to set up the Realstar International Study Award and the Realstar Community Service Fund at SMU. It is the largest such gift to date in support of SMU’s overseas community service efforts.

SMU President Professor Lily Kong accepted the donation at the presentation ceremony, saying: “The Realstar Community Service Fund supports SMU’s efforts to imbue our students with a global outlook and a social conscience, nurturing leaders with a heart for our region and its communities.”

This fund will support SMU’s Centre for Social Responsibility (C4SR) in providing grant assistance to full-time undergraduates who participate in community service projects such as Project Gazaab over the next five years.

The community service fund maintains two grants: an Overseas Community Service Project grant – working on a project basis and supporting expenses incurred on overseas community services projects in Southeast Asian countries and Nepal; and a Local Community Service Project Grant, for SMU to curate new local community service projects in Singapore aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).