Our Program

Raksha Ascent combines guided learning, mentorship, community, reflection, and adventure. Each part of the program prepares participants to better understand themselves, strengthen their relationships, and take purposeful action in their lives.

The Program Philosophy

We believe growth is most powerful when participants do more than listen to a lesson. They need opportunities to reflect, speak, connect, practice, and experience the ideas for themselves.

Our learning model brings together:

• Meaningful conversations rather than one-way lectures

• Stories and examples

• Personal reflection and practical application

• Collaborative challenges and memorable activities

• Guidance from Nepali mentors and women leaders

• A supportive group in which participants learn with and from one another

• An expedition where learning is tested through real experience

1. I Have Worth

Participants begin by exploring inherent worth, confidence, and the beliefs they hold about themselves. They identify strengths they already possess and consider how their internal voice influences the choices they make.

Core ideas: self-worth, confidence, strengths, self-talk, personal dignity

2. I Know Myself

Participants explore identity, values, emotions, interests, and aspirations. The goal is not to give them a prescribed definition of success, but to help them better understand who they are and what matters to them.

Core ideas: identity, values, emotions, aspirations, self-awareness

3. I Can Choose My Response

Courage is not the absence of fear, and resilience is not pretending that difficulty does not hurt. Participants learn to recognize emotions, respond thoughtfully, ask for help, and continue moving forward through uncertainty and setbacks.

Core ideas: courage, emotional awareness, regulation, resilience, responsibility

4. I Can Build Healthy Relationships

No one completes an ascent alone. Participants examine the qualities of healthy relationships and practice communication, empathy, trust, teamwork, and appropriate boundaries.

Core ideas: communication, trust, boundaries, empathy, belonging, mutual support

5. I Can Shape My Future

Participants consider the person they hope to become and the future they want to help create. They practice setting goals, making purposeful decisions, solving problems, and understanding leadership as positive influence rather than status.

Core ideas: agency, goal-setting, decision-making, leadership, purposeful action

6. I Can Release What Holds Me Back

Through guided reflection, participants consider burdens, painful beliefs, or experiences they may be ready to release. This experience approaches forgiveness and healing with care, never requiring disclosure or prescribing how someone must process her experiences.

Core ideas: reflection, self-compassion, forgiveness, renewal, moving forward

7. I Can Do Hard Things

The Himalayan trek brings the program's lessons together. Participants encounter fatigue, uncertainty, changing conditions, group decisions, and moments that require perseverance. They also experience beauty, laughter, achievement, and the strength of a team moving forward together.

Core ideas: applied courage, perseverance, teamwork, leadership, accomplishment

The trek is the environment in which participants practice what they learn.

On the mountain:

• Courage becomes taking the next step when the path feels difficult.

• Resilience becomes recovering after a hard day.

• Leadership becomes noticing who needs encouragement and taking responsibility for the group.

• Communication becomes listening, speaking honestly, and solving problems together.

• Self-awareness becomes understanding personal limits and knowing when to ask for support.

• Confidence becomes evidence: “I faced something difficult, and I continued.”

Trained trekking professionals oversee the expedition, while the Raksha Ascent team and local partners support the developmental experience throughout.

After the Mountain

The summit is a milestone, not the end of the participant's story. Reflection after the trek helps participants connect what happened on the trail to challenges, relationships, goals, and choices in their daily lives.

Our long-term aim is to strengthen continued mentorship and follow ups, alumna relationships, and opportunities for former participants to support and inspire future cohorts.