In Waiting for Mamu, 28-year-old Pushpa Basnet struggles to provide a typical childhood for the more than 150 children she has rescued from the floors of Nepal’s prisons. Pushpa, or Mamu as she is called by the children, feeds, clothes, educates, and loves her children while struggling to pay rent and overcome the discrimination of landlords and neighbors when she is surprised by worldwide recognition as the 2012 CNN Hero of the year.
As one of the poorest countries in the world (according to UNICEF, 55% of the population lives below the international poverty line), Nepal has none of the social safety nets that exist in most western countries. When parents are sent to prison, there is nowhere for their children to go. Many enter prison at a young age with their parents and are released to the world at age 18, with no life skills or support system, knowing nothing of the world but what they experienced in a jail cell, creating a vicious cycle of poverty and crime. The film shares Pushpa’s passion to help and the story of what it means for a child to grow up in prison and yet find hope in unlikely places.
Please join Prabal Gurung, Susan Sarandon, Shikshya Foundation Nepal, NEUEHOUSE, director/producer Thomas Morgan, and producer Angela Thomas in New York on March 12, 2014 for a special screening of the award winning short documentary Waiting for Mamu and a chance to meet the incredible Pushpa Basnet and support her work to ensure no child has to grow up behind prison walls.
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