Pushpa Basnet

Pushpa Basnet
Basnet in 2012
Born	Kathmandu, Nepal
Occupation(s)	Social worker, Entrepreneur[1][2]
Website	www.ecdcnepal.org

Pushpa Basnet (Nepali: पुष्पा बस्नेत ) was born in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1984,^[3] and is a social worker and the founder/president of Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) and Butterfly Home,^[4] non-profit organizations, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Her organization works to strengthen the rights of children living behind bars with their incarcerated parents.^[1][5][6]

Her efforts have been recognized by national and international media since she was nominated for CNN Heroes Award, which she subsequently won in 2012. She has won the 'CNN Super Hero Award' in 2016.^[1][7]

Basnet started her career at the age of 21, while she was still an undergraduate in Social Work at St. Xavier's College, Kathmandu. As part of her college assignment, she visited the women prison in Kathmandu. She was dismayed when she saw children living with their parents behind the bars. She raised 70,000 rupees (roughly $885) from her close friends and sister, and started a non-profit organization -The Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) to provide a day care program to the children, in 2005.^[8]

In 2007, she opened a residential home for kids to live outside the prison year round while still visiting their mothers on holidays. Today, she has assisted more than 137 children of incarcerated parents. She runs a day care center for the prison children and a residential home for older ones. She has also helped to provide alternative residence, school enrollment, free meals and medical care to them.^[1]