Asia Leadership Retreat Recap

AMR01876 (1)
09 Sep
August 11–14, 2026

Kathmandu, Nepal

Seven countries, one room, and a lot of first meetings: this was the first-ever LOLA Asia Leadership Retreat.

Leaders from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Armenia, and China gathered in Kathmandu for four days that were less about presentations and more about finally putting faces to names. Many had only known each other through screens. In Kathmandu, they had the chance to sit together, exchange ideas, talk about their chapters, and get to know the people behind the work.

The women behind the chapters

Things kicked off with How I Found Liberty, with each participant telling the story of how she found her way into the movement. Different countries, different paths, but the same thread running through all of it. It was the right way to start: get to know each other as people before diving into the work.

Between sessions, there was plenty of room for the in-between moments too — conversations over meals, cultural exchange, the kind of small talk that turns into real connection when you’re meeting someone in person for the first time.

Learning to lead — and to be heard

From there, the retreat turned to leadership and communication, the two skills every chapter leader ends up needing whether she planned for it or not. Ruchi Pandey, Founder of Areta Public Relations, spoke on building credibility as a leader, and Charu Chadha, Editor of Business 360, followed with a session on storytelling — how the right story makes an idea stick.

Participants got to put that into practice right away at the Elevator Pitch Contest,led by Sara Urquizu, Researcher at Liberty International,  where everyone had sixty seconds to answer one question: “What is LOLA?” Members of the local LOLA Kathmandu Chapter sat in as guests and judges, turning it into a real exchange with the community hosting them. 

Ichchha Khatiwada of LOLA Nepal took the win, rounding out a top three that also included leaders from LOLA USA and LOLA Colombo: Nafisa Pierce and Zeenath Imrana. But the real point wasn’t the ranking, it was the practice: leaders taking everything they’d just discussed about communication and putting it to the test, explaining LOLA in their own words.

The LOLA Team, Dalila Lisboa and Laura Lima, also led a session on LOLA’s stances and what the organization stands for. Sara Urquizu introduced participants to Liberty International’s work and opportunities, while Anne Dias, President of LOLA Brazil and former Global Chapter Program Director at LOLA, led ”Leading Beyond Yourself ”— a session on what it looks like to grow as a leader while helping the people around you grow too. A hands-on workshop on writing donor letters rounded things out, bringing the focus back to the everyday work of chapter leadership: telling supporters what their support actually makes possible.

Learning from each other

Some of the best conversations happened outside the sessions — over meals, between activities, and in the moments when leaders simply had time to talk. The Leadership Exchange was one space where they could bring those conversations into the room, swapping stories, challenges, and ideas from their own chapters. With so many different countries and contexts represented, there was plenty to learn from what other leaders were trying, what was working, and what they had already figured out.

Two moments of recognition stood out. LOLA Kathmandu, led by Prasidika Dhungana, was named Asia Chapter of the Year for the work the chapter has put into building LOLA locally. And Lyba Israeli was named LOLA of the Month, for the leadership behind bringing this whole region together in the first place.

Coming at the first-ever Asia Leadership Retreat, both felt especially fitting — one honoring the work already happening on the ground, the other the leadership that made the region feel like a region at all.

Experiencing Kathmandu

On the last day, the group traded the retreat venue for the city itself: Swayambhunath, Kathmandu Durbar Square, the Boudhanath Stupa, and a lot of wandering through the streets in between. After four days of sessions and conversation, it was a chance to actually be in the place that had brought them together, walking through centuries-old temple squares, taking in the prayer flags and the incense, seeing daily life in Kathmandu instead of just the inside of a retreat venue.

It felt like the right way to close a retreat that, at its heart, was about the same thing: getting out of your own routine, your own chapter, your own country, and into the same room — or the same street — as people doing this work in completely different contexts. Everyone went home with new ideas, new friends across the region, and a clearer sense of who else is out there doing this work alongside them.


The first-ever LOLA Asia Leadership Retreat would not have been possible without the people who helped bring it together. We are grateful to Atlas Network, The Foundation for Harmony and Prosperity, and Liberty International for supporting the retreat, to the Asia Regional Team — Lyba Israeli, Ichchha Khatiwada, and Nishat Z B — for their work bringing leaders from across the region together, and to all the speakers and participants who shared their time, experience, and ideas throughout the retreat.

Older Chapter Program Updates – August