RIHLA #14

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1. My assigned hero is Pushpa Basnet. She is a 28-year old female that started a nongovernment organization to help children that are behind bars but not because they have done anything they shouldn't have. The arrested parent has a choice to bring the child with them to prison or leave the child in the streets if there is no local guardian available to take the child in and care for them. Basnet started helping the children that once lived in Nepal’s prisons. Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world that lacks social safety and space is extremely limited in the few children’s homes associated with the government.

2. My initial reaction to my hero’s story was shocked then as I continued my reading I began joyful. I felt shocked because after getting background on the country Nepal and understood that children can be brought to prison with parents I felt sad to know many children grew up in prison and grow up with a horrid memory of their childhoods. I felt happy to learn of Basnet’s life, experience and her interactions with the children. Basnet was studying social work in college and her family ran a successful business, so I came to conclude that she was not as unfortunate as the people she would work side by side with. She took interest in those who are less fortunate. Basnet started with a day care with help financially from her family. Many doubted Basnet could succeed. Then during my reading I saw that Basnet got her friends to donate money, convinced her parents to buy new furniture then when the replacement came she would take the old one to the center. She found it hard to meet ends and even sold her own jewelry and possessions to keep her center going. She even started a program to teach parents how to make handicrafts which she would sell to raise money for the children’s care and help parents to not feel useless since they were in jail but could contribute back to Basnet by helping her make these crafts and even learned new skills.

3. In the year of 2012 my greatest contribution to the world has been the love I have given. I am not perfect and do get mad and do things that I regret but over my break I spent all my time with my family. My parents are divorced and I am currently living with my father. I haven’t seen my mother for at least two months and over my long beautiful 2 week break I saw her for the first time again and have seen her often. I have always had a smile on my face and I tried to accomplish so many things. What I did that I love is that I wasted my birthday money to get my closest family Christmas gifts. I loved everything I received but more than that I loved the feeling of giving and not receiving.

4. The type of program or projects I would like to be a part of would be side by side with elders. I have always loved working with people so I feel elders are calmer compared with children also elders should be treated just as babies with gentle care. I would work in a nursing home taking care of elders and then having people from the community that would like to volunteer to come and help entertain the residents. We would have town halls similar to UIC’S but way more fun. There would be decorations which we would rent in a hall and there would be a big stage. I would have people acting out Romeo and Juliet, singers, food and lots of it, dancers in groups, and even a masquerade ball!

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Photos

imagesCAENGIQ6
http://www.rventuresholidays.com/nepal_information.html
basic information that I found.