Pushpa Basnet has been working tirelessly to give these children a chance they never thought they’d have. The Nepali social worker’s Butterfly Home, where she’s known as “Mamu,” gives prisoners’ children a safe place to live, with access to school, regular meals and the chance to play and grow up alongside peers of all ages. Since 2005, Pushpa’s efforts have saved more than 500 children from living in prison.She started her career at the age of 21, while she was still an undergraduate studying social work. As part of a school assignment, she visited the women’s prison in Kathmandu and was dismayed to find children living with their parents behind the bars. She raised 70,000 rupees (about $885) from family and friends, and started a non-profit organization, Early Childhood Development Centre (ECDC), to provide a day care program to the children, in 2005.
As The Early Childhood Development Centre grew, in its first 10 years the ECDC had to move between three different buildings, uprooting their lifestyle and the children’s newfound sense of stability each time. As Pushpa puts it, “It’s not fair for (these) children to live in the prison because they haven’t done anything wrong. My mission is to make sure no child grows up behind prison walls.”