Dia is a writer and researcher from Nepal. She is currently the coordinator for Intersex Asia and is also affiliated with the Open Insitute for Social Science as a research fellow, where she is completing her post graduate diploma in writing at the research program. In the past, Dia has served in the UN Women Nepal Country Office as a Program Support Officer.

IVLP Impact Award Project: Storytelling: Documenting Queer Stories

This project documented queer lived experiences from Nepal. At the heart of it, Dia contributed to the pool of queer writers and storytellers in Nepal by engaging with five young queer storytellers. Dia facilitated a month-long one-on-one workshop for the five participants, where the queer writer and storyteller were provided with flexible scheduling (20 hours in total) to accommodate work or educational commitments. This intensive engagement created a safe space in which participants could refine their storytelling skills and pen their own narratives. The project also created a website primarily to serve as an archiving tool for these stories which can be used beyond the workshops to add and share more diverse and unique stories in the future.

Dia was also a panelist for the IVLP Impact Awards Alumni Discussion Series panel on “Advancing Human Rights for Marginalized Communities” which you can read more about here.

Click here to Read the participant's stories

Participants with the guest facilitator for day 1 of the workshop, focussed on writing.

Participant sharing their writing and journaling with the group.

All participants with Dia and the guest facilitator for the 3-day workshop on Documenting One’s Life.

Participant sharing their writing and journaling with the group.

"All these years, I have been working as a LGBTQIA+ human rights activist. This storytelling workshop helped me to reflect about my journey." - Project Participant

IVLP Exchange Experience 

Dia was a participant in the IVLP Project A Global Moment in Time- Reflections on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, organized by the U.S. Department of State and Meridian International Center.

Dia's exchange experience led to the development of her IVLP Impact Award Project: "During my visit to the US for my IVLP, we went to many different cities, and in each of them, we went to different memorials or museums, and spaces dedicated to housing and documenting lived experiences and how they impacted change."

U.S. Communities Visited

San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC; Kalamazoo, MI

"As a writer and storyteller, [IVLP] inspired me [to] gather queer lived experiences in my country: to document history in the making." - Dia Yonzon

Country: Nepal 

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