I am born and grown up in Pasebung, Dagapela, Bhutan in a financially constrained family. My patents, despite difficulties, realised my primary and secondary education. After completing secondary education, I worked for transport and communication in Thimphu. Unfortunately, in 1991 still at young age, along with my family I got expelled from my village. Amidst numerous difficulties and scarcities, I have lived in the refugee camps in Nepal for 18 years. I worked as a schoolteacher in Green Vale Academy and got involved in camp based voluntary activities for welfare of the refugee community. In 2008, I got an opportunity to get resettled in the USA. Though everything was new – the system, culture, communication, way of thinking, etc., with time I managed to adapt and learn. The resettlement has given me a new dimension and rewarding start of my life. Today I work for the community in Salt Lake City in Utah and for a number of Governmental and Non-Governmental Organisations at consultative status. My children are also making best out of the opportunity studying Biomedical Engineering.
The experience of difficult life in remote village in Bhutan, harsh living conditions in the refugee camps in Nepal, and realising the importance of education for poor children, I am sponsoring Sita Basnet through the Punya Foundation.
Sita Basnet, Student grade V, Sindhupalchowk, Nepal
Sita, 12, is a daughter of Ganesh Bahadur Basnet and Sani Kanchi Basnet. She studies in class 5 at Shree Aananda Higher Secondary School, Jalbire VDC-9, Sindhupalchowk District in Nepal. The devastating earthquake of 25th April 2015 killed her father and destroyed her house completely. Sita has 4 family members. Even before the earthquake, her family had a poor financial situation. During the earthquakes, they lost their properties and her mother is not able to make Sita’s schooling possible. Sita is very active and good in her studies and aims to be a professional dancer in future.