"If you want to do something you can do it but you have to dare to do it," says Pushpa Basnet, 22, who overcame failure to become founder and president of the Early Childhood Development Centre in Bhatbhateni. Established six months ago, the centre cares for children under the age of six whose parents are in jail, most of them in the women's prison in Sundhara.

Basnet was inspired to start the project during a jail visit during her second year of a bachelor's course at Xaviers College though she has been interested in social work since she worked as an after-school volunteer in Bal Mandir. "I never thought that prisons would have such young children. We thought we could take them out but you know how it is-friends talk but it's hard to get things started."

But they overcame that lethargy and finally got things rolling. With the support of a core group of seven-Rupak Rana, Kammu Pokherel, Purnima Basnet, Juni Shrestha, Mina KC and Aruna Karmacharya- the centre was readied for business. "I am really proud of my team. It's been all friends and it has been about teamwork," says Basnet.

She is also proud of her own achievements. Having failed in third grade, Basnet didn't pass the SLC on her first attempt and was also held back in her second year of college for missing classes. Making the centre work became her way of proving that determination can overcome past failures. "I could have stayed back and cried but I choose not to. Today I look back and I know I have achieved so much."

Most of the centre's children are aged two to six years. They are picked up from the jail at 9AM and dropped back at 4PM, a daylong release from the four walls of the prison where their mothers are confined. Sano Kanchi's mother is in jail for killing her husband. At the end of a day spent at the centre the girl, barely a year old, refuses to return to the prison until Basnet promises to go get her the next day.

The group has been trying to keep the centre going by raising money from family and friends. They also sell products made in the jails by the children's mothers and use a portion of the profits to buy the centre's food and other necessities.

The centre currently cares for eight children and Basnet has approached other jails to inform them of their services. The good the centre has done for the children is apparent in their happy faces and healthy bodies. Says Basnet, "it brings me immense satisfaction to see the improvement in the children. I will never give up. Even now, every chance I get I run back to work."

PIC: KIRAN PANDAY