Strength in Adversity 2020 — Winner

Priya Thapa, then 23, was a social work student at a college in Pokhara. Her essay, "The Lamp Does Not Argue with the Dark," was a first-person account of supporting her community during an exceptionally difficult period — running food errands for elderly neighbours, coordinating informal support networks over the phone, and finding that her faith deepened precisely in the moments she expected it to fail. The judges described it as "the kind of essay that makes you want to become a better person."