Biography

Pushpa grew up with her family in Kathmandu. They managed a hydropower company and led a stable home life. As a child, Pushpa wanted to continue the family business with her family. It was in university, however, that Pushpa’s life changed. While studying for her degree in social work, she visited a women’s prison. To her greatest surprise and sadness, she found young children and infants alongside their mothers in the cells. She was unaware that in Nepal, children of incarcerated mothers are forced to live in prison with their moms because extended families refuse to take care of them and there is no social service system to house them in the interim. Seeing these helpless children, Puspha was motivated to do what she could to help these children obtain their freedom and a chance to live a normal life.

She wanted these children to breathe air outside of prison and to understand and pursue better opportunities in life, so she founded Early Childhood Development Center as a daycare center and residential home to help care for and educate these children. She currently cares of 42 children of incarcerated mothers. Over the years, her work has been recognized globally, including through the 2012 CNN Hero of the Year award and the 2013 international documentary Waiting for Mamu.