Pushpa Basnet: 2012 CNN Hero

• Name: Pushpa Basnet
• Age: 28
• Country: Nepal
• Company: Social venture
• Focus: Education
• Website: www.edcd.org.np

"I am entrepreneur because I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children who unfortunately had to live lifes of prisoners because they were dependent on their parents who have been convicted."

My Story
Intro

When individuals are imprisoned for their deviant behavior, their punishment does not end with the completion of their stay at the prison, but continuous after they are released from prison. The society in which they live, isolates them and they are looked down upon. They have huge difficulty in finding any jobs through which they can sustain their livelihood. This case is even more sensitive in the case of former women inmates. Through her ventures Pushpa, “Nepal’s Mother to Prison Children”, aims to help their plight through a sustainable social business strategy.

About Me

During my bachelor’s in Social Work in a momentary incident I visited a police women’s cell in Kalimati – Nepal. Out there an eight-month-old small girl named Sanukanchhi held the rim of my cloth. I was shocked to see a kid inside the jail. I happened to exclaim, “My goodness, a child in prison!” I felt her eyes, staring listlessly, were telling me: “Release me from here, how can I grow in the air of prison?”

Following that emotional encounter, with the help of few of my friends I started a Daycare center where four children of inmates were brought out from the jail every morning and returned back to their parents in the evening. We registered it in the name of Early Childhood Development Center as a non-government organization (NGO).

Since then I have been showering motherly love towards these children and I am looking after their upkeep. I am the dear “Pushpa mummy” of these kids, but not their biological mother. People sometimes stare at me when they hear my story but I feel over the moon during the time I spend with the children. I want to ensure these children are not distanced from their parents in prison. So once every month I take them to meet their parents. Tears well up my eyes when I see them clinging to their parents like hostellers. Social justice may have deceived them but not love. If I would be Einstein, I would probably prove “Mother’s Love” is equally a relative term just like light.

I have been running the organization for 5 years now and in those years I realized that I have done a lot for these children and now also want to do something for their imprisoned mothers. I noticed them making knitted items, handicrafts, recycled plastic products to keep themselves busy. So I thought of utilizing these skills and produce their handicrafts at a large scale and bring the products out of jail and sell them at the market. This way by imprisoned women can utilize their time by producing the products and they can also earn a living. Besides the working with current prisoners we also have plans to involve former women inmates who have been released from the jail.
My Venture

The main objective of this venture is to involve the female prisoners as well as the former prisoners in income generating activities through which they can sustain their livelihood and also contribute towards raising their children. To make our vision possible, we will provide the women with a skills training program and than by utilizing, channeling and marketing their skills, we will provide them with an sustainable income. We will carry out this venture with women inmate’s initially from Pokhara Jail – Nepal. In the initial stage we will produce products such as plate mat, pencil holder, bowls etc.. This stage will be our experiment stage, since we want to start from a small scale. Looking at the success rate and analyzing the performance slowly we will expand the business as time progresses by. This stage may be after a year or so from the initial starting phase.

The women involved in this venture will be provided with the monthly salary to sustain their livelihood. Through the sales of the venture we will be making some profit to sustain our operations. This profit will be used for the education of the inmate’s children who are residing at Early Childhood Development Center.

-paragon100.asia