Miss-Tech, in collaboration with Robotics Association of Nepal, held Girls Can Fly—a workshop with the intent to teach girls how to assemble and fly drones, this week. The three-day workshop that aimed to empower girls technically and teach them long term income-generating skills concluded on Wednesday.

Bikash Gurung, President of Robotics Association of Nepal, said,” A drone pilot earns ten thousand rupees per flight. It’s a lucrative occupation. Because there are rarely any female drone pilots in the country, we wanted to teach girls how to fly drones and open doors to them in a new sector. This is why Girls Can Fly was conceived.”

Speaking to the post, Stella Koirala of Miss-Tech said, “Apart from the money-making perspective, we also wanted to educate girls about drones. They’ve become a rage abroad—even pizzas are delivered through drones lately. In Nepal, however, despite numerous uses and possibilities, the technology is still unheard of. This workshop was organised in an effort to aware and educate girls about this handy technology.”

The workshop enrolled and taught 40 girls—from various fields of science and humanities—the basic theory assembling and flight process of drones, and had the girls fly drones on the final day.

Rojina Dhakal, a third-year computer science student and a participant, enthusiastically spoke to the post about how becoming a part of the workshop had widened her knowledge on such a useful technology.” 

I didn’t know the vast usefulness of drones before the workshop. Only after I attended the workshop did I realise that drones could be used to promote tourism and facilitate farming—to spray pesticides, among other uses.”

The workshop was held under Miss Tech 2017 programme on behalf of Nepal Telecommunications Authority.