Kailash Panday barely had an idea about his life taking a roller-coaster ride when he left home for India at 17. Born to a family who lived a simple life in Ramechhap, it was quite tough for him to build his career on his own. Nonetheless, accepting the challenges that life threw at him, he now stands proud as a corporate lawyer and a chartered accountant. Holding a degree of Chartered Accountancy from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (2012), he earned Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from University of Delhi in 2016.
His career took a beautiful turn when he was offered to pursue Master’s in Law and Finance from the University of Oxford. However, he was fully aware that it would cost him a fortune to collect the amount of money he would need to attend the university. Unlike many students who couldn’t make it to the university each year due to financial barriers, Panday tried and ventured out on a journey to hold his dreams high with the help of crowdfunding which is the practice of funding a project by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people via online and offline modes.
The idea of crowdfunding developed soon after he received the offer to attend the university. Having known that the students of corporate law were not provided with scholarships, he tried reaching out to a diverse group of people. Moreover, with an urgent need to collect a huge amount of money, he apparently looked forward to apply for loans. But as he hardly had any collateral to keep as security for loans, the banks couldn’t provide him with any kind of loan.
Studying and struggling for eight years in India, Panday was offered with many job opportunities in reputed law firms there. Nevertheless, having thought that he would start something of his own in Nepal, he returned here after the completion of LLB. He utterly grew out of hope when he couldn’t receive any kind of financial aid from the government of Nepal.
Since it is nearly impossible for an average Nepali to afford such an expensive course without scholarship, he eagerly looks forward to establish funding opportunity in Nepal in order for the students to not to miss out on the opportunity due to financial crisis in the days to come. Although he has managed to collect around 10 lakhs via crowdfunding, he is still in need for additional 50 lakhs. “If this campaign is successful and I am provided with the opportunity to attend the University of Oxford, I have a plan to establish a scholarship fund where I personally would contribute the amount received towards this campaign to fund that scholarship on the completion of my course”, says Panday.
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He further added, “With the degree and the level of education I have earned so far, I am confident that I can repay every amount of money that goes for my study. Since I am having a tough time collecting funds to attend the university, I would like to make a humble plea to Nepalese industrialists, philanthropists and even the government to help me in this endeavor.”
Although the courses start by the end of September, he needs to sign a financial declaration with financial evidences by the end of July in order to secure his place for the course. Despite many hurdles, he made a happening journey till here and given the opportunity, he hopefully would be able to shape his plans on empowering many more youths in the future to change the face of Nepal.
