We come across plenty of DIY videos on the internet all the time but usually we can’t make them because the items used in those videos are not available in Nepal. It’s quite frustrating when you want to put your crafty side to use but do not find the resources to do so. Do It Yesari is an e-commerce website which is a platform for DIY artists to give full exposure to their products – and they also plan on putting up videos on how the said artists create their products.
Do It Yesari was started by Ruxana Maharjan, Ankita Sharma, and Ayushma Shakya as their group project for WLiT (Women Leaders in Technology) which is a non government organization with the vision to provide young girls opportunities and resources to carry out their passion in technology, and become leaders and innovators. Maharjan, Sharma, and Shakya are three of the 15 young women selected for WLiT’s 2017 fellowship program.
Maharjan says that the idea for Do It Yesari was selected from 45 ideas. “Each of us had to come up with about 15 ideas for our future entrepreneurship venture and Do It Yesari got selected as the best fit for us,” she says adding that although Do It Yesari was one of her 15 ideas, Sharma and Shakya are also working on it.
DIY Denim bags from old jeans:
According to Maharjan, Do It Yesari has not adopted a business model yet. She confesses they are still training and learning the ropes on business and networking, “We started on this fellowship about nine months ago and still have about three months of training left. We are still learning on this fellowship course and in our area of bachelor studies both.”
Maharjan and Shakya are classmates on their third year BSc. CSIT at Kathford International College and Sharma is a senior at Kathmandu University. The biggest struggle the founders of Do It Yesari are facing right now is time management. Since they are all pursuing other things alongside Do It Yesari, it is quite difficult for them to set a time when all three of them are free.
Right now Do It Yesari is mainly focusing on launching their website sometime in March. They have collaborated with artists and brands like Yashrii products, Aakar and Fashion Engineer and they believe launching a website will keep them more on the radar for future ventures. Maharjan confesses that she is more than grateful to get this opportunity through WLiT, “I cannot thank WLiT enough for this extraordinary opportunity. Everyone from the mentors to my co-founders has helped me to grow in these past nine months.”
Though Do It Yesari is still in its infancy, the few posts they have on their Instagram page make it seem quite promising. If Maharjan’s words are anything to go by, then it probably won’t be long till we have a dependable DIY source we can all explore and enjoy.
(Anweiti Upadhyay)
