What a year!

BlinkNow and Kopila Valley programs have been recognized with a series of national and international awards in 2025, highlighting our leadership in sustainability, education, gender equality, and community development.

From global recognition to local honors in Nepal, these awards reflect a growing movement to value community-driven models of change and the people who make them possible.

The awards are detailed below.

World’s Best School Finalist – Environmental Action
This prestigious award brought worldwide publicity and national attention in Nepal on Kopila Valley School’s work to integrate sustainability into education as well as daily life. The voting portion of the prize meant that a team of Kopila staff visited surrounding communities and shared our work with our neighbors, gaining thousands of votes in the public competition.

Herizon Award – Maggie Doyne
Maggie won the overall prize in this inaugural award series focused on women in leadership and transformational work. This led to a number of publicity opportunities from award organization Business Intelligence Group, including a newswire published in over 200 outlets, podcast interview, video shorts, and an article detailing our work.

International School Award
Kopila Valley School was awarded for the work of the Futures Program, promoting opportunities for students and career counseling for culture education and job preparation. This also allowed some staff members to publish a thought leadership article in the ISC School Leader journal.

Green Apple Award for Building & Construction
This year, Kopila’s NEW Children’s Village was awarded this honor, for its eco-friendly earth bricks, solar power, native landscaping, and water conservation measures.

Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice
The Food and Farming program earned this honor for connecting learning, sustainability, food security, and local economic growth.

Sallaghari Alumni Association – Rajen Karki
Rajen sir was celebrated for remarkable contributions and achievement in the Education Sector as a Principal of Kopila Valley School, and uplifting the name and the fame of the country on a global platform.

Academic Excellence Award – Shuvakamana English Boarding School of Kathmandu – Rajen Karki
This award was presented to Kopila Valley Principal Rajen Karki by the Principal and the Director of the school, with chief guest, Former Minister of Physical Infrastructure Development of Bagmati Province.

Women’s Creativity in Rural Life
The Women’s World Summit Foundation selected our nominee Jaysara Baral, beekeeper and Kopila Valley partner in sustainability education, for this award.

Kamla Bhasin Award
Jaysara (above) was also shortlisted for this award for women in nontraditional livelihoods.

We are Together Prize
Kopila was shortlisted as a finalist for this award for humanitarian work.

Green Difference Award
We were honored for our student leadership in climate action.

GESS Award – Inclusion
Kopila Valley School was a Finalist for this award for Inclusion, based on our work to ensure quality education for children who would not otherwise have access to school.

Read more about past awards on our Press/Media page.