Asia 21 Young Leader Pushpa Basnet Nominated for CNN’s Top 10 Heroes for 2012
Update (December 20, 2012): Asia 21 Young Leader (Class of 2011), Pushpa Basnet from Nepal has been named as the 2012 CNN Hero of the Year!
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Asia 21 Young Leader (Class of 2011), Pushpa Basnet from Nepal has been nominated as one of the Top Ten CNN Heroes for 2012.
Ms. Basnet is the Founder of Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) and Butterfly Home. Both organizations focus on enriching the lives of children who live behind bars with their incarcerated parents. Her mission is to ensure that “no child grows up behind prison walls.” She runs both as a day care center for children under the age of 6, and a residential home for the older children where she provides food, clothing, shelter, and education. Coming from a privileged background, she has sold most of her possessions in order to run both facilities. She even started a livelihood program for the parents of the children—where they make handicrafts to sell—as means to support the care of the children. Her goals for the future include raising money for the children’s higher education, and buying or building a house that they could call their own.
The CNN Heroes is organized by CNN annually to commemorate individuals who make extraordinary contributions to society through humanitarian aid.
The winner of the CNN Heroes Award 2012 will be announced in Los Angeles, California, on December 2. Apart from the US$50,000 that was awarded to each Top 10 Hero, the winner of the CNN Hero of the Year will be awarded with an additional US$250,000 to continue his/her work.