A Light in the Darkness

The beautiful country of Nepal is home to 29.3 million people, half of whom are women. Over the years, events like the2015 earthquake have drawn many of the country’s men to the Middle East for work. This has left numerous Nepalese women alone to care for their families in a culture where females are almost entirely reliant on their husbands for financial support. These issues have created an extremely low quality of living for these women.

NariHub hopes to change that. The company, with Nepalese roots, aims to help women in Nepal achieve financial independence and gain encouragement to raise their voices in defense of their rights. “The women of Nepal have challenges that I saw them face every day. This is my chance to give back to them,” says Rituraj Yadav, co-founder of the company. With support from the College’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CEED) and professors Jeff Street and Donna Lybecker, the startup is marketing sweaters and other clothing made by these impoverished Nepalese women. These items will help generate a stable source of income while simultaneously teaching essential skills in business. Yadav hopes that the women will eventually be able to sell their goods in the U.S. independently, so NariHub can help others in similar situations. “I would love to implement this program all over the world to help all women in need,” says Yadav.

After first presenting the idea at a conference in Boston, Yadav and co- founder Asim Dhakal entered into the Idaho Entrepreneur Challenge (IEC). The team won runner-up, best marketing display and pitch position. Since then, the team has continued to make the idea a reality. In December, they distributed surveys at Cottonwood Junction and the Old Town Mercantile in Pocatello in an effort to gauge market interest in product design and price point. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

Both Lybecker and Street feel that NariHub will do very well in Pocatello. Lybecker notes that, “Pocatello is a community that understands people’s needs.” Street agrees that the merchandise being sold “is also quite suitable to the winter climate and the outdoors-person demographic of Pocatello and Idaho in general.”

In addition to their market research, the company has partnered with College of Business alumni Roshan Kumar, owner of Himalayan Grocery and Smoke Shop as their distributing agent in Pocatello. To learn more or to place a pre-order visit: facebook.com/narihub