CNN Hero of the Year – Pushpa Basnet

Once again, a Nepali woman awarded CNN Hero of the Year. In 2010, Anuradha Koirala received the CNN award for dedicating herself to combat women’s trafficking and sex slavery. And this year, the award was given to Pushpa Basnet. She devoted her life to support children whose parents get incarcerated and are forced to stay behind bars with their mothers.

At the age of 29, Pushpa received such a prestigious honor by CNN. Not only did she receive the honor, she also got awarded $250,000 to continue her work. Hopefully, this money will benefit her in nourishing the lives of these children and provide them with the best of education, food, and medical care.

It’s always relieving to see a common man supporting the mango people. Since we live in a cruel and a selfish world, not many come forward and do their due diligence for the poor and needy.

Pushpa has been helping these children since 2005 and takes care of more than 140 children of incarcerated parents. She has been a very focused and determined person from her teenage years. At the age of 21, Pushpa witnessed how children lived in prison with their mothers; and from that point onwards she was persistent to help them live a normal life outside prison.

Let’s all hope that Pushpa gets the best in her life, so she could accommodate a better life to all these children who have nowhere to go. Wish you all the good luck and the dignified life. Women like you, make us proud and make the whole nation content. *Big Hug*

The Reality – Face it !

Sitting in my cubicle, I thought of taking a peek into the world just to remain globalized. As I was surfing through CNN.com, I examined an astonishing story on the front page. The very first line antagonized me.

“Geeta was 9 when she began wearing makeup, staying up until 2 a.m. and having sex with as many as 60 men a day.”

SIXTY MEN A DAY – pause and think what happened with Geeta. A nine year old girl living in a third-world country, who has absolutely no knowledge of what sex is, probably no education either, belongs to a poor family and above all no money! Even though there are countless similar stories on every news engine, I still feel despondent on every encounter. Girls like Geeta, are sold to brothels by their own parents. The reason is quite simple: money to survive. I fail to understand how can parents sell their daughters for money? Can’t they try to find a job even with the minimum wage? It might not provide those lavish products but atleast it will provide them the basic necessities. Selling your own daughter to some pimp is extremely atrocious, and that too because a bastard demanded some pleasure and in return gave pain to the girl forever.

Statistics show that every two seconds a girl gets raped somewhere around the world. Some live in fear, some silently accept it, some try to get justice, and some commit suicide. Only one plunder is needed to permanently damage a girl’s image, self-respect, appearance, confidence, and dignity. Even though Geeta was thrashed, sexually assaulted by sixty men a day and only God knows for how many days it went on for; there was a lady somewhere in Nepal who devoted her life to help girls like Geeta. Fortunately, Geeta was saved by an angel name Anuradha Koirala. Perhaps, an angel for several girls. The 61-year-old woman and her group have been fighting for more than sixteen years to rescue and rehabilitate thousands of sex trafficking victims. Hats off to Ms. Koirala! She definitely deserves applaud from the entire world.

Anuradha’s own history in an abusive relationship led her to her crusade. For most of her young adulthood, she was a teacher. However, when her relationship took a violent turn, her life’s purpose changed. She was battered by her husband every day, had three miscarriages which certainly happened because of the beating. Eventually, she ended her relationship and started living on her own terms. She initiated her retail shop and supported sex/domestic violence victims. This lady is a pure symbol of Durga.

Our blue moon is filled with woman’s like Anuradha who put others first. We have such reputed, successful woman in our time. To name a few: Mother Teresa, Rani Laxmi Bai, Indira Gandhi, Kalpana Chawla, Anuradha Roy, and now lets add another name to the list: Anuradha Koirala.

Jai Mata Di !