Talk with CNN Hero Puspa Basnet

Pushpa Basnet is a social worker and the Founder/President of Early Childhood Development Center and Butterfly Home, non-profit organizations, in Kathmandu, Nepal.Pushpa Basnet stands in the courtyard outside her damaged orphanage. A force to be reckoned with, she directs 40-some children about their daily chores and routines. She anxiously looks up at the neighboring and ominous three-story building that’s ready to collapse onto her home at any moment. Despite the looming battle of rebuilding, Basnet notes that her children are safe, which was her primary concern and “most precious, irreplaceable gift of all.” She explains that her rented property in Budhanilkantha was spared the worst of the destruction that ravaged many areas of Kathmandu. Yet Nepal still faces daily obstacles—such as lack of power and clean water—along with recurring aftershocks that won’t allow Basnet and so many others to return to ordinary life. Her story told many times, Basnet is now a well-known community figure. At 21, she started her career as a social worker while still an undergraduate student at university. She learned that in Nepal, all too often, two people pay the price for one. She visited prisons throughout the country and was heartbroken to find an alarming number of children accompanying their parents and growing up behind bars. This inspired Basnet to raise money for her own nonprofit organization. She opened the Early Childhood Development Center in 2005 to provide a daycare program for children. By 2007, she had created a residential home for children to live outside the prison and in her care year-round. Her organization strives to strengthen the rights of children living with incarcerated parents. Hoping to break the cycle of crime and poverty, the Center coordinates with prison administrators to rescue children behind bars throughout urban and rural regions.