Arjun Pradhan, 19 years old, is a Bhutanese refugee living in Beldangi camp in Damak, Nepal. He is the youngest (and only man) among 4 siblings. While the two older sisters help their parents at home and with cow-keeping activities (mainly for subsistence), Arjun and his sister Matrika Pradhan, 21 years old, had the opportunity to start their business and diversify the family’s sources of livelihood.

During the Covid-19 outbreak, Arjun created a shop to sell meat, eggs, among other products. The shop is an annex to the house where his family lives in Beldangi camp. More recently, Arjun also started helping his sister Matrika with her business idea, a “courier” service to export Bhutanese products, mainly traditional clothes, to Bhutanese refugees living abroad, mainly in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Between 2007 and 2016, around 90,000 Bhutanese refugees who were living in Nepal were resettled to third countries, and therefore Arjun and Matrika have family, acquaintances, and other contacts in these countries.

In August 2023, Arjun and Matrika had the opportunity to participate in an IYB training organized in the context of the ILO-UNHCR project “Building Inclusive Markets for Refugees and Host Communities in Nepal”. According to the two siblings, the training was a turning point for their business mindset.