Shequal & UN Women IDEATHON: Empowering Girls in ICT for Unpaid Care Work
24th April 2025, Kathmandu
Shequal Foundation, in collaboration with UN Women Nepal, successfully concluded IDEATHON 2025, one of the pre-events of Nepal’s largest all-female hackathon.
Shequal & UN Women IDEATHON
Organized to commemorate Girls in ICT Day, the event brought together aspiring young women from across Nepal to collaborate, innovate, and co-create solutions under the theme: “Unpaid Care Work – Recognize. Reduce. Redistribute.”
The one-day event was held at SecurityPal Nepal, Balwatar, and hosted over 60 diverse participants, primarily young girls from various educational and professional backgrounds, with 12 mentors. IDEATHON was structured as a guided, non-competitive mini hackathon, focused on exploration, creativity, and inclusivity.
Throughout the day, participants formed teams to identify real-world challenges related to unpaid care work and applied human-centric design principles to develop innovative solutions.
They received expert guidance from leading mentors in Nepal’s tech, design, and development sectors, who provided on-the-spot feedback and encouraged deeper engagement with the problem space.
Speaking about the event, Astha Sharma, Co-Managing Director of Shequal Foundation, stated:
“IDEATHON was more than just a pre-event — it was a space for young women to step into the world of innovation and problem-solving. Hosting it on Girls in ICT Day was a powerful reminder of the need for more inclusive tech spaces. The energy, empathy, and creativity in the room were truly inspiring.”
From empathy-mapping exercises and problem-framing to team collaboration and mentorship sessions, IDEATHON 2025 created an empowering experience that not only prepared participants for the upcoming hackathon but also encouraged them to see themselves as future leaders and innovators in tech.
The event served as a preparatory platform for participants ahead of Shequal Foundation’s flagship event — Nepal’s Largest All-Female Hackathon in the theme of Hacking for Empowered Nepal, happening on 26 – 28 June, 2025, this year in partnership with UN Women.
For more: Shequal & UN Women IDEATHON
