God's gift to battered souls !!!

Have you guys heard of Anuradha Koirala ? Even if some of you have, her heroic saga is a story worth repeating a million times.

       

It all started on the auspicious day of Poila Baisakh i,e. 14th April 1949 when she entered this world as a baby born to Col. Pratap Singh Gurung and his wife Laxmi Gurung of Rumjatar, Nepal. The proud parents who regarded a good education above all else sent the young Anuradha to St. Joseph's Convent at Kalimpong in India, one of the best English medium schools they could find and she ended with a good education and an excellent command over the English language which was a rarity in the Nepal of 1950s. Her years spent in convent schools also gave her a mindset that placed service to humanity above personal gain.

She was married to Dinesh Prasad Koirala but the treatment and abuse that was meted out to a young Anuradha forced her to take the harsh decision to separate and lead life on her own terms. She   decided to take up a teaching job which she continued for almost 20 years, having taught in the best schools in Kathmandu.

It was during this phase of life that she encountered withdrawal of young girls from school, their early marriages and often abuse at the hands of the husband and his family. She also saw a large number of young Nepali girls being forced in to the flesh trade in India, often the poor parents in rural Nepal lured by touts offering attractive jobs in big Indian cities. These sexually exploited girls would be abandoned by the society after they had a child or two, mainly for want of timely medical intervention. Many of them contracted AIDS and were left homeless after their commercial sexual exploitation was over. Most had no home, family or a place they could go to and most importantly they had no money or any skills to make a fresh start in life.

With a view to stopping this heinous trafficking of young girls and even children, she founded Maiti Nepal ( Maiti is Mother's Home in Nepal ) in 1993. Over the last 22 years she has, with help from the Police and other like-minded NGOs inspired by her, managed to rescue over 12,000 young women from brothels in India often at a great personal risk.

Maiti Nepal conducts a large number of activities like Conducting awareness campaigns, Community sensitization, Rescue operations, Apprehending traffickers, Providing legal support to the needy, Women empowerment, Giving Anti-Retro Viral Therapy (ART) to children and women infected by HIV.

Anuradha has no children of her own but considers all the women and their children as a part of her large family and unhesitatingly has spent all her money for them. The cash endowments received along with all her global awards etc have gone into making Maiti Nepal a better home for all its inhabitants at the various shelters and hospices. At last count the 10 shelters and hospices had almost 3000 inhabitants.

Due to her continuous struggle, the Government of Nepal recognized 5 September as anti –trafficking day. This endeavor was initiated by Maiti Nepal. She was also appointed as a state minister  as an honor to her contributions.

Ms. Koirala loves spending time with children, they say that they get a warmth of mother and a father. She is self motivated person relishing new and dynamic challenges with a leadership role if required in a team environment or independently.

On 25th  November 2010 she was declared as CNN - HERO OF THE YEAR through global on-line voting . Her victory as a CNN Hero was the  result of her struggle, compassion & determination to fight the social evil of human trafficking and is a matter of pride to all the sensitive souls out there.

All her activities are funded by her own meager resources, her winnings from over 30 International honors and the small products made by the inmates of her shelters but she still needs all the help we can extend to this great soul who herself on various platforms has credited Mother Theresa as her guiding light.  

If you wish to know more about her noble endeavors please contact 

Maiti Nepal, 

83-Maiti Marg, 

Pingalsthan, Gaushala, 

P.O. Box 9599, Kathmandu, Nepal. 

Phone:                977-1-4492904 

Fax:                    977-1-4489978 

E-Mail:   info@maitinepal.org or program@maitinepal.org 

or visit their website at www.maitinepal.org

In case you wish to make a donation please contact (please do the necessary homework to ensure the money reaches the rightful people) 

Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Limited
Kathmandu, Nepal
SWIFT CODE: SCBLNPKA
Name Of Beneficiaries: MAITI NEPAL
Account No: 01-0184012-10