Although it has gained a reputation primarily as an adventure travel company, the managing director of Five14, Jiwan Rana Magar, explains that the company is a group of six interrelated ethical businesses that work together to prevent exploitation in Nepal. The six businesses under Five14 are: an adventure travel company, a bed and breakfast, a catering company, Karios Cafe, a sales office (that operates in the US) and a non-profit foundation.
When it was launched in 2011, the founders of Five14 (Rana Magar being one of them) were mainly working to prevent exploitation of women in rural areas of Nepal. They had been hosting and facilitating trekking trips of students from foreign (mostly American) universities through another agency for a while. During one of these trips, they discovered a village in Nuwakot that was labeled as a red light district and there were hardly any young women in the village. Turned out, almost all the young women of the village had ended up in brothels in India. Although the village wasn’t exactly hidden from the outer world, nobody was doing anything regarding this exploitation since the villagers would chase away any outsiders from the village.
“When we decided to do something to stop the horrendous crime at the village, even we were advised to not go through with our plans as that would mean putting our lives in danger,” says Rana Magar. But the Five14 team approached the village despite the risk and gradually gained the trust of the villagers and it has been working to develop this village and stop all possible forms of exploitation happening there for the past eight years now. Rana Magar also mentions that in the past eight years, the village has prospered tremendously. It has now developed a reputation as a leading home stay destination in Nepal.
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Since the village is pretty self-reliant right now, the Five14 team is slowly backing out of the area and is looking into working at other villages. They are researching for locations in Nepal that have similar issues and are planning to expand to 15 different VDCs in a decade’s time.
“We started the company for a social cause but since its inception we have also dabbled into tourism and business to support ourselves,” states Rana Magar. He explains that since the Five14 team constantly struggled with finding a comfortable place that was reasonably priced to accommodate the university students during their initial years, they decided to launch their own bed and breakfast service about five years ago. They opened the cafe approximately six months after that and officially launched the adventure tourism company a year later.
Although they were already working on social issues and had been facilitating projects to prevent exploitation in the background, they launched their non-profit organization in 2015 to properly carry out these activities. Their catering business launched last year and they opened the sales office – for travel adventure – a few months ago at Colorado Springs in the US.
Currently, the main office of Five14 is located in Jhamsikhel, Patan. The business extends over two buildings. The first hosts the cafe and a few bed and breakfast rooms while the second houses their office space, catering business, and a few more bed and breakfast rooms as well as the reception area which also functions as the product room where souvenirs and products from ethical Nepali companies are showcased and sold.
“The most important thing I’ve learned after operating Five14 is that there are a bunch of opportunities for people who want to make something out of their lives in Nepal,” says Rana Magar adding that he himself was very frustrated about the pace and path of his life before he launched Five14. He states that if all Nepali youth who are heading abroad to develop their careers take a good look around them, they can find a way to do what they love without abandoning their country. He also mentions that he will try his best to help any young struggling entrepreneur who approaches him in whatever way possible.
Rana Magar also expresses that he thinks the reason all kinds of exploitation are taking place in Nepal is because of unemployment. About 40% of Nepalis living in the country are unemployed and Rana Magar believes that if this problem is tackled successfully, the country could develop and prosper at a very fast pace.
One of the solutions to tackling exploitation that Rana Magar suggests is by supporting ethical businesses. He reveals that Five14 is also an ethical business that follows all labor laws and the company as well as everyone involved with them pays their taxes properly and on time. “It might not seem like much but this one practice will aid in the development of our country,” he says adding that a lot of businesses in Nepal aren’t fully ethical and that hinders development and progress and ultimately leads to exploitation of all sorts.
