CNN gives an award to Pushpa Basnet, an angel for dozens of children living in Nepali jails
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - Pushpa Basnet, a 28-year-old Nepali woman, was awarded the CNN Hero Award 2012 for her work with the children of jailed women. She is a graduate in social work from St. Xavier College, a Catholic college run by the Jesuits in Kathmandu, one of the foremost private educational facilities in Nepal.
Without support from the state, dozens of children are forced to live with their jailed mothers or left to fend for themselves in the streets. This is a problem for all women's penitentiaries in Nepal.
According to the authorities, about 80 children live in prison. In order to give them a normal life, Pushpa set up the Early Childhood Development Centre in 2005, a non-profit educational organisation for kids over the age of 4. She also established the Butterfly Home, a kindergarten for children of female inmates that provides health care, food and shelter. Some 40 children live in the facility.
CNN chose Pushpa among 10,000 candidates active in social work. The award ceremony was held last Saturday in Los Angeles, California.
"This is for my children," she said in accepting the prize. "Thank you so much everybody who voted for me and who believed in my dream."
With the CNN Hero Awards comes a cheque for US$ 250,000, which will go to the Butterfly Home.
In a press statement, St. Xavier College expressed its joy of having someone like Pushpa Basnet among its alumni. Her work is an encouragement for our school and commitment to Nepali society, the Jesuit Fathers said.
Pushpa began her involvement with children in 2005 when she was preparing an exam. For that reason, she visited a women's prison in the capital.
Struck by the bad conditions in which inmates' children lived, many just newly-born, she asked the mothers if she could take care of them until they purged their sentence. About ten women accepted the offer.
When she graduated in 2007, Pushpa decided to work full time to help the children. Through donations from friends and fellow students, she was able to find a few rooms in a building near her home.
Since it started, Butterfly Home has been home for more than a hundred infants and children, of pre- and school age.
During their stay at the facility, they keep in touch with their parents. During school holidays, Pushpa takes the smallest children to visit their mothers, bringing food, clothing and drinking water.
In order to fund her activities, the young social worker set up small stalls to sell cards, necklaces, bracelets and other trinkets made in prison by the young inmates.
She has also opened a bank account for each child to set aside some money for their higher education.
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02/04/2009
08/10/2021 17:05
