A Dream Come True
“For Puja, graduation was a dream come true, one that she thought might never happen.
As Puja said in her graduation speech, when she was born, a door was closed, but Mitrata-Nepal Foundation for Children and Bhuvaneshwori Satyal Foundation opened another door for her.
Puja faced many challenges in her early years, including albinism and the low vision which often accompanies that condition. When I first met Puja in 2015, she was extremely shy. She rarely made eye contact and spoke in a low voice. She was having difficulty in school due to her vision and her friends told me that Puja sometimes worried that she "had no future." She always dreamed, however, of being able to live an independent life.
True to Mitrata and BSF's mission of individualizing for each child's needs, Dr. Christine Schutz, Executive Director of Mitrata-Nepal, reached out to The Rose International Fund for Children, a foundation which specializes in helping children with disabilities in Nepal. Robert Rose recommended the Laboratory Higher Secondary School, which mainstreamed visually impaired children into their program and had experience in educating children with limited vision. While there, Puja was mentored by Sita Gyawali, one of the teachers. Within two years Puja made up her academic deficits, and passed her 10th grade SLC national exam with the highest score of any Mitrata student! Nirmala Gyawali, the Fund Development Director of Ability Development Society of Nepal, included Puja in empowerment workshops and experiences designed to foster independence for students with visual challenges.
As Puja's academic studies progressed, it became increasingly difficult for her to read the small print of the advanced textbooks. Puja told me that her friends took notes for her and she studied from her friends' notes. In order to address this need, I contacted the Missouri Association for the Blind, and with the help of The Lions Club of Webster Groves and donations from friends, I was able to purchase the MagnaLink Zip, a device which enables the reader to control the size and lighting of the texts. With this device Puja was able to read her textbooks and now SHE was the one taking notes and sharing them with friends!
Throughout all the years, Leena Satyal, Executive Director of BSF, and her staff provided ongoing physical, academic and emotional support to Puja. They provided not only housing and education, but career and personal counseling as well. Most important of all, they provided a sense of family.
Fast forward to today, graduation day, and now Puja has successfully completed her teaching internship, her license and her Bachelor's degree in Education. Puja recognized the importance of the support she has received in her graduation speech. In fact, she called up Christine and Leena, the Extecutive Directors of Mitrata and BSF, and me onto the stage in order to thank us and acknowledge the important role we all played in her life.
It takes a village, as they say, and we were able to open doors for Puja. However, it is Puja herself who walked through that door. It is her hard work, her determination, her motivation, her compassion for others and her sense of humor which allowed her to succeed. And it is precisely those qualities which will make her a successful teacher, one who inspires her students as she has inspired me.
Puja has changed my life, as we have changed hers. Today I feel like a proud mother, and like any mother, I cried at her graduation and was filled with pride and gratitude for all of the people who have helped to make Puja's dream of independence possible. I look forward to seeing the next chapter in Puja's life. I know she will make a difference in this world, and so the gift we have given will be passed along to others, and influence the future as well as the present.”
Pam Hughes
Puja’s Sponsor and Mitrata Board Member
