Breaking the vicious cycle of poverty & malnutrition with SOCHAI - Youth For Nutrition

"I was able to take this idea forward with the support of UNICEF after winning a Youth Innovation Challenge in 2016. Currently, I have a team of 20 youth volunteers working on nutrition awareness and advocacy through our network Social Changemakers and Innovators (SOCHAI).

Our SOCHAI–Youth for Nutrition project has already provided counseling to dozens of mothers with the help of the Nutribeads bracelet. As a part of this project, we have also trained adolescents, local mothers’ groups and health workers."

Read my journey after winning the 3rd High Level Meeting Youth Innovation Challenge.

Full article is available here I want to break vicious cycle of poverty and malnutrition and here We are changemakers of present in the Uniting Against Poverty Blog by OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID)

Youth Innovation Challenge: My Life Changing Journey

 “…and the winner of the High Level Meeting for Child Rights (HLM3) Youth Innovation Challenge for the Social Protection For Family category is Bonita Sharma from Nepal.”

The words still echo through my mind.

For someone who was always an average Jane at school; someone with shattered self-belief and nonexistent confidence; someone who has such luck that even winning a 10 rupee coupon in noodles is a big deal, this felt like a dream!

The 8^th of November became one of the life changing moment for me. Not only did I represent my country and win a competition in an international platform, but also rewired my belief system, where hard work and determination takes you a long way.

***

Four months ago I received an email about the HLM3 Asia Pacific Youth Innovation Challenge. In the competition, each country in Asia Pacific was given a unique theme & challenge regarding issues children are facing worldwide, and youths had to come up with an innovative solution to address them. Initially, I wasn’t planning to apply for the competition, but one of the challenge questions for Nepal was regarding Maternal and Child Nutrition which grabbed my attention as it is one of the areas I am keen to work in.

When I discussed my ideas for the competition with my close friends, some of them were very supportive and shared the same level of energy as I did, while some were skeptic about it. The deadline was approaching so I sent my idea anyway. However, there wasn’t a single second where I thought I would go through the first round as I always believed that I am not good enough at anything I do.

Meeting the users during online mentorship 

September came with a surprise! My idea got through the first round from almost 660 applications. I now had the opportunity to enroll into an online mentorship program based on design thinking for 6 weeks. My performance in the online mentorship would determine my eligibility for the next round.

The six weeks journey was a roller coaster ride. Each week you would get learning materials and a task to submit within a deadline. Though I had to juggle my studies, office work and the competition all at the same time, those six weeks felt like an inventive game rather than a hectic challenge because I had my relentlessly hard working teammates whose dedication and the selfless team effort made the idea a winning solution.

 

Got the notice board yay!

Every week there was a mission to submit your task, get it graded and receive encouraging feedback from the most kind and inspiring mentors. I remember doodling for hours at night to structure the idea, making the walls dirty with posters and sticky notes (in spite of my parents warning about the stain the glue left on the wall), dragging my teammate to field visits to interact with the users regardless of their busy schedule, requesting my employer to provide a notice board so that I and my teammate could paste our post-its while brainstorming solution after work. Our motivation during the entire process was self generated with an aim to achieve the higher goal to ensure better future for our children.

My birthday arrived with another surprise. On the 10^th of October, I received an email confirming my selection for the Bootcamp in Kualalumpur, Malaysia. It is the best gift I have ever received.

***

The Bootcamp

HLM3 Youth Innovation Bootcamp is by far the most enriching, inspiring program I ever attended. The entire experience changed me and empowered myself as a social changemaker. The mentors in the bootcamp are undoubtedly the real life superheroes who I believe, helped each one of the participant to go through metamorphosis. I don’t think I have ever felt this level of growth in myself within such limited time. I have learnt to analyze the problems from a different perspective and find innovative ways to address them. I learnt never to give up despite the failure, and forever strive to improve lives of the millions of children in any ways I can.

During the bootcamp, we built experiments to test and validate whether our idea is actually a tangible solution that foster positive change. My Youth for Nutrition teammates back in Nepal took a leave from their work to test the experiments with our target users. Their enthusiasm and energy to give something back to the society has remained my strongest motivation throughout my journey. I am also very grateful to them for believing in me and helping me overcome my fear of becoming a leader.

One of the biggest parts of the bootcamp were the participants who actually deserve a separate piece of writing. Despite of the diverse cultural background we came from, all of us had a common goal to help children through incredible innovations. Instead of competitors, we were a team where we constantly build, motivated and pushed each other forward. I consider myself very fortunate to have met the 45 changemakers from around the world. The bootcamp has given me lifetime supply of this phenomenal friendship I share with the participants.

***

Pitching the Idea

After preliminary judging round, six finalists were selected, who had to pitch their idea infront of ministers and advisers from 29 countries. When I found out that I am one of the finalists, the first thought I had on my mind was, “Is it possible for me to run away now to escape this?”

My lack of self confidence fed my self doubts, which was further fueled by realization of losing "NutriBeads" (my idea prototype) seconds before I went on stage to present my idea. This was followed by mini heart attack and few glasses of water. I tried to calm myself down with breath-in-breath-out exercise.

We were given five minutes time to finish our presentation and unfortunately I had to skip the best statement that I kept for the last because there was no time left. I even forgot to give thanking remarks to the audience at the end of my presentation. Well, better late than never! Thank you so much to the warm audience in the Unicef High Level Meeting on Child Rights 3 Conference for your kind attention and for your support with the “awwww” gesture at the end of my presentation when I had to stop halfway. Shout out to Kal, Ronan, Anne, Danial, Michelle, Marina, Chelsea and the entire team of Tandemic who I cannot thank enough for the continued moral support and for all you have done to help in my transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

PC: Creative Makura

I stood in front of 200 people, represented my country and shared an idea on something that I am really passionate about. By this time, I had won over my fear, self doubts and low confidence. In past 3 months journey, I got a chance to explore my creative side, I started to act rather than just think, I learned failure is mandatory for success, and I grew as a changemaker with a mission to make a positive impact in the lives of children. I was already a winner!

When the amazing super judges called out my name as one of the three winners of the competition, it was an icing on the cake. I received a seed grant of USD 5000 along with mentorship and support from Unicef to start up a social project based on the winning idea. There was a flow of appreciation, encouragement, motivation and lots of hugs and photographs. It kind of felt like a mini-celebrity moment!

The HLM3 Youth Innovation Challenge journey changed my life in ways I never thought it would. It has become a stepping stone for my adventure ahead as a social changemaker. Since November 8th, I have had opportunities to interact with young people, dignitaries from government and non-government sectors and stakeholders who have shown massive enthusiasm to our cause to end malnutrition beginning from the grassroot level through awareness and education for the mothers in communities. 

Thank you everyone for believing in me and for being a part of my emotional and inspirational journey!

CHANGEMAKERS! PC: Tandemic

If you would like to know about the winning idea, please refer to the link below.

HLM3 Youth Innovation Challenge Winning Idea: Nepal

UNICEF HLM3 Youth Innovation Challenge Winning Idea: NEPAL

Studies have proven that adequate and appropriate fulfillment of nutritional needs during the critical

window between pregnancies to up to 2 years (1000 golden days) is the backbone of child’s future health and well being thus reducing their risk to morbidity and mortality associated with malnutrition. 

However, in the most of the developing countries like Nepal, malpractice of adequate and appropriate infant and young child feeding is causing high prevalence of malnutrition. The problem of malnutrition is fueled up by the massive earthquake in Nepal in 2015 and demands effective interventions for improving infant and young child feeding practices to achieve the key to sustainable development. 

Source: Ekantipur

According to WHO IYCF country profile report of 2010, only 53% of women in Nepal exclusively breastfed their babies while mere 34% had initiated breastfeeding early (within an hour). Similarly only 70% of children were introduced complementary feeding during 6-8 months. 

Realizing the severity of these issues, government and non-government organizations are implementing interventions focused towards improving Infant and Young Children Feeding practices, especially in rural remote areas. However, there is still a long way to go to resolve this issue.  

"Two months ago when my grandson was born, he suddenly started crying at night in the hospital. When I tried to feel his stomach, I realized that it was flat. Guessing he might be hungry, I fed him Lactogen (milk formula). I later got scolded harshly by the nurse at the hospital for feeding Lactogen to a newborn baby."

"I feed my baby water after oil massage. It's what my elders used to to."

"Sangita had been struggling to conceive since past few months. When she found out that she was pregnant, Sangita and her family's happiness had no bound. She soon gave a birth a healthy baby boy. With an aspiration to provide best for her baby, she crushed the cashew and fed him. Unfortunately, the cashew got stuck in the child's throat and he ultimately died. Because nobody informed Sangita about proper child feeding practices, her child faced an ill fate due to a preventable cause. Sangita is disowned by her husband and family. She is currently living in her maternal home."

“I have told my daughter in law to breast feed her child for at least 2 yrs as it prevents the baby from diseases. But since my daughter in law is a working woman, I think she will only feed upto 6 months.” (The quotes are based on the conversation with the target users)

The major similarity in the real life stories above is the need of awareness in the community to bring about changes in their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding nutrition and child feeding. Youth for Nutrition (YFN) is committed to address this issue to prevent child morbidity and mortality in Nepal.

YFN's Idea to Educate Mothers on Early Childhood Nutrition

A mother visits local health center for Antenatal, Postnatal care and Immunization services during pregnancy and after delivery. The government of Nepal is also providing incentive to encourage mothers to visit the health center for ANC/PNC services.

NutriBeads/Poshan Maala is a tool developed as an initiative to make the mothers aware about proper child feeding practices. It is designed to provide information on 3Es of breast feeding (Early initiation within an hour, Exclusive for 6 month, Extended breastfeeding for up to 2 years) along with timely initiation of complementary feeding practices with inclusion of balanced meal for children under 2 years of age.The NutriBeads is especially targeted to the golden 1000 days mothers (from pregnancy to until the child reaches 2 years of age) as optimum care during during this period lays a foundation for the physical as well as cognitive development of a child.

To receive services at that health center, a mother usually has to wait for certain time. The concept of the idea is to form and mobilize network of youth volunteers "Youth for Nutrition" who will make mothers aware on proper infant and young child feeding practices during waiting hours by using the nutribeads. The mothers who receive the information can easily understand and share about appropriate child feeding and implement the learning in practice to ensure good health and well being of her child. The NutriBead will be a constant reminder to the mothers about correct child feeding practices.

NutriBeads aka Poshan Maala

NutriBeads or Poshan Maala is an array of 23 colored beads in which each color holds a unique meaning. 

NutriBeads is a cost effective technology. Though it might neither fall under the category of a modern nor a traditional technology, it is  actually an "appropriate technology" which has been created to address the critical issue of malnutrition among children in Nepal so that no child or mother has to face an ill fate due to preventable causes. NutriBeads provides information on correct feeding pattern of  children upto 2 years of age along with promotion of balanced diet. 

The NutriBeads is designed in such a way that the message can be easily understandable for both literate and illiterate mothers of rural and urban communities. Given the cultural importance of beads in Nepalese community, it can also be a valuable asset for the mothers. Anyone who receives the information can easily share and communicate the message with other people in the community.

NutriBeads Color Indicator

• White: Breast Milk
• Brown: Cereal/Grain
• Yellow: Pulse/Legume
• Green: Green Vegetables
• Red: Fruits
• Blue: Animal Source Of Food Like Ghee, Butter, Cheese, Egg, Meat
• Black (With Number): Time Interval Of Six Months 

The past four months journey has paved a path for us to take baby steps as young changemakers in the field of health and nutrition. We are fortunate to have won the UNICEF HLM3 Youth Innovation Challenge and received USD 5000 as a seed grant to take our idea forward along with support and mentorship from UNICEF. We believe there are thousands of young people with the inspiration and innovation to be a voice for change. If you are one of them, come join us to fight malnutrition to save our children so that mothers like Sangita do not have to suffer again. We are also looking forward to any kind of support, feedback and guidance from like minded individuals and organizations.

Connect with us via our Facebook Page Youth for Nutrition (Click here to go to our Facebook Page)

HOW ABOUT STEPPING INTO OUR SHOES?

Media has been an effective tool for promoting women’s sexual and reproductive health rights and reducing unsafe abortion in Nepal. It has the power to foster positive changes in lives of millions of women. However, to my disbelief, the rising stigmatization of abortion services as being dangerous procedure by the popular national media houses in Nepal has been a major factor in fueling individual, family and societal stigma in the country..

Recently, an article titled “Abortion at a young age” with a picture of a distressed pregnant woman was published in a national daily newspaper, which was shared 1900 times online. The article solely focused on high number of young women accessing abortion, rather than analyzing the reasons behind why unwanted pregnancies occur and the reasons for its termination. Not a single sentence in the article focused on the role of men in causing an unwanted pregnancy. This wasn't surprising as majority of the sentences depicted deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset of the writer who tried to ignored reproductive health and rights of women and young girls guaranteed by the constitution and presumed women to just have reproductive roles.

Another article published in a popular online news portal was titled “The scary reality of abortion in Nepal”. The article which was shared 9950 times basically stressed on following statements, among which majority were baseless assumption;

Assumption: Among the abortion service users, number of high school girls and unmarried is the highest. 
Reality: National statistics have shown that majority of the service seeker are the married reproductive aged women who have had one or two children and had history contraceptive failure. 

Assumption: Abortion causes infertility in future. 
Reality: Unsafe abortion can cause infertility in future. 

Assumption: Abortion risks women life to risk. 
Reality: Safe abortion is 10 times safer than the normal child birth

....and many more!

I would also like to share some of the responses of the readers in the comment section, which are as follows;

Male 1: “Ban abortion!”

Male 2: “Abortion service needs to be made very costly and only expensive government health institutions should provide it. An orphanage must be established for those people who do not want to raise their unwanted child so that people can come and leave their unwanted children”

Male 3: “Change the age of marriage. Women must be married off at an early age”

Male 4: “These days every teenager knows about sex without any formal education. ”

Male 5: “Go on women, make a misuse of women rights like this”

Male 6: “There must be solid rules for banning sex before marriage”

Male 7: “Before marriage SEX is forbidden. An abortion is totally wrong instead of giving birth to a child. Just think of being an aborted child, if your mom had an abortion before your birth you would not be here in this earth. So, doing abortion is forbidden.”

Rather than providing positive, factual and in-depth information, both news articles were giving incomplete and misleading information to the public. The readers were also making a moral judgment of women for having an abortion instead of empathizing them for the reasons behind it. 

There is a misleading notion among general public spread by the polarized media houses that women who have an abortion and women who have children are totally different types of women whereas the fact is these might be the same women at different stage of their life. Women have abortion for myriad of reasons, whatever the reason be, it is her life and her story that she chooses to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. No one can better decide as what is best for her and her body than women herself. However, the prevalent patriarchal system in the Nepalese society limits women’s decision making role in the family.  Women do not get to choose or decide their reproductive need. They are usually entitled to their husband or family member’s opinion rather.  How are we in a position to decide what a woman should or should not do until and unless we have been through the same?

Nevertheless, the power of media in fostering positive changes in lives of millions of women is well documented across the globe and it stands true in the case of Nepal as well. It was the role of media back then when we were convincing policy makers through years of advocacy, lobbying and campaigning, for prioritizing women’s health and well-being by legalizing abortion in 2002 A.D. So, in the present context, the responsibilities of media as well as the concerned stake holders have increased manifolds in reducing the growing stigma and van guarding the rights which were guaranteed 14 years ago. We cannot slide back when we are at the crux of moment full of promises to achieve universal access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights by 2030. There should be sustained coordination among multi-stakeholders to project dreams into ground realities for changing the lives of millions of women and girls across the country. All of these start with positive media role in promoting women’s health.

So, isn’t it time all of us especially media personnel step into the shoes of those women who went through abortions for various reasons for a change and understand the realities of abortion, make it stigma free and establish it as women human right?

'We are what our environment is'

Happy Earth day people! Let's think about our impact and make a positive change!

To be honest, I did not know it was Earth day today until Facebook reminded me. Not only did it remind me of the special day, but also of an article I wrote two years ago. Sharing that piece of write up today. :)

Ever since I remember my childhood, I was told that the trees and plants can hear, see and feel like us, humans. At the age of 22, I now know that they don’t, but, I don’t think it would be wrong to say that my love for nature grew with this particular myth.

As I go deep down the memory lane and recall the times spent with my dad, I remember him picking up every chocolate wrapper I threw on the floor. How amazed I used to be when he carefully let out the caterpillar which I tried to kill in the garden. One particular memory that still makes me laugh is when he told me earthworms were his friends. My response was, “Friends? Dad, they are worms and worms are creepy!”  Well, now I feel proud that vermicomposting is something I learnt from him. My dad has been my greatest inspiration since my childhood. His attitude towards nature and environment guided my passion all along and is one of the reasons for my love towards it.

"We are what our environment is." As a student of public health, this is the first thing I learnt in my environment class. Listening to the teacher about the mounting environmental problems everyday is undoubtedly heartbreaking. And the daily realization about the ignorance of youths towards the environmental issues tops it all. I believe that the youths today are overlooking the fact that they constitute a major part of our country's population and that their actions at present can give rise to significant consequences in the future.

One determined initiative, one firm decision; one courageous step can CHANGE the world. But the youths today are lost in the virtual world. We are more curious about the new gadgets launched in the market rather than the decreasing number of bees due to cell phone radiations. We are highly concerned about not missing a single day without being active in the social networks, but we don’t seem to have any time to speak out for the depleting ozone layer.

But, gone are the days to complain and whine about how someone else is not taking the initiative. If one needs an inspiration, they can look at the "hamribahini" initiative to prevent the use of polythene/plastic bags. We must take initiative ourselves. Step forward, and lead the way for others. Change is not a plant that grows overnight. It requires frequent nurturing, determination, love and care. Without the self realization among youths about the need to address the environmental issues, accomplishing the dream of 'sustainable environment' is a far cry. It is essential for every individual to realize their role and do their part to protect the environment. After all, we are what our environment is.

ASAP Youth Advocacy Refresher – A journey to remember

It was least expected that in the first day of ASAP Youth Advocacy Refresher (YAR), we Youth Champions from Nepal would be discussing about bad weather and its consequences during flight, rather than women and their right to abortion. The unexpected weather in Kathmandu cost us some of the very interesting session on the 4^th YAR in Mumbai. Nevertheless, the sessions we got to attend in the remaining two days were extremely enriching for us.

The 2^nd day of YAR began with saddening reality of one of the woman in Bangladesh, which was depicted through a documentary screening by Anika, Youth Champion from Bangladesh. The documentary made us realize how liberal Nepal is in terms of laws regarding abortion. But despite the legalization, the challenges women had to face to get an access to safe abortion were same in both Bangladesh and Nepal.

It was a privilege for the us youth champions, Bidhya and myself to be able to share our small grant project through our film ‘Women for Women’ on Female Community Health Volunteers. The encouraging response from the ASAP mentors and fellow youth champions regarding our project has inspired all of us to forever thrive for women’s right to safe abortion starting from the grass root level. Similarly, we also had the the opportunity to share about Youth Champions Advocacy Network Nepal (YCANN), a network established with the support from ASAP with focus on SRHR and safe abortion in Nepal. Smriti and Randhir, the members from the core team highlighted about past work as well as future plan of YCANN to establish it as a strong youth network for advocacy, awareness and capacity building activities.

In our everyday life, we advocates come across people from different background who does not accept safe abortion as a women’s right. Sometimes, inability to respond to such people tactfully can lead us to our failure as an advocate. Hence, the role play session on how to tackle such situation was very fruitful for all the YCs. It also made us realize that during discussion and arguments, we sometimes tend to forget that women are our integral concern, and we must always put them in our priority while making our point.  

Understanding the politics of internet was another eye opening session for us. The hidden reality of how big companies control the internet and manipulate the people’s mind was very daunting. Similarly, the example of a girl on period whose picture was taken down by Instagram just because she posted a picture with menstrual blood stain on her pants is another case that proves the pointless regulation of content by the internet in the name of vulgarity prevention. The power of internet must be used to amplify the narratives of women’s realities rather than trying to shut their right to freedom of expression. The session also made us appreciate the internet as a revolutionary tool that is able to influence a movement, as well as empower women by enabling them get an access to critical information on SRH and safe abortion.

The session on history of women healers, patriarchy and health care on the third day of the YAR was very relatable for most of the YCs, who were health professionals. During the discussion, the YCs shared about how the arrogant attitude of health professional discourages women to seek safe abortion services in a health center. Some of the YCs who themselves were medical doctors said that even their colleagues have a negative perception towards abortion. There was also an interesting revelation on how image of nurses is imprinted as someone gracious, helpful, caring and are subjected to heavy work at low cost most of the times, because people consider nursing as a women’s natural work that needs no license.

With the very moving session on human rights and social movement, we learnt that our voices will only be heard, if they are collective. So, all of us must have one ultimate vision i.e. gender equality and for this a woman must be brought to a level where they are able to get an access to SRHR through the approach of equity. Only after the common vision, collective voice and networking we can achieve our goals and objectives through a social movement. The journey which we embark on by surviving a storm came to an end with increased consciousness and understanding of women’s right to safe abortion from a broader perspective. However, the actual journey for us youth champions as advocates for safe abortion had just begun.

PINCHU

Few days ago, I was scrolling my Facebook homepage. One of my friends had posted about a couple of dogs that were severely injured because some Mahan Prani hit them with a khukuri. I could not look at the picture for more than 5 seconds. Even the thought of the pain those innocent beings had to endure made my heart sink, and I wondered how evil the person who committed such heinous act must be. Fortunately, the dogs are in good hands now because Sneha’s Care, an organization working for animal welfare is treating them.

Incidents like these are not new for us anymore. Every other day, we see ruthless treatment and abuse of animals by the most intelligent species on earth…'humans’. Streets of Kathmandu are full of such speechless animals, waiting outside every meat shop, near garbage bins, trying to cross the road, or sitting quiet on the middle of the street without knowing what might happen next. Will they be subjected to a hit and run or batter and burn? Or will they be chained to death, poisoned or attacked with acid? How can people come up with such nasty ways to take lives of creatures who cannot even defend themselves? Wow human beings! You must feel so powerful to control harmless animals. You deserve a round of applause!

Since my childhood, I have always wanted to do something to stop mistreatment of animals. I am certain my close friends remember me saying, "dherai paisa kamae pachi stray animals ko lagi shelter kholchu." As far as I can remember, some of us had even made a plan to start this initiative once we had enough money. Though I have not been able to put my plan into action, it really warms my heart to see some wonderful people/organizations coming together to give voice to the voiceless animals and provide them the life they deserve.

***

Initially, this particular post was supposed to be about animal cruelty and how I have not been able to work on my dream to found a shelter for animals. However, a slight change of plan because now I want to share a story about Pinchu who encouraged me to find a new motivation in life.

One evening outside a Chiya Pasal near Pashupati, a black dog was sitting quietly beside a tea table. When my friend and I clapped our hands and called her, she rushed towards us wagging her tail as if she had known us for a long time. Usually dogs around Pashupati do not go near people, may be because of the fear that they might get beaten, again. But unlike other dogs, this particular black dog surprised us with her friendly and playful nature. We heard from the Pasalni didi that this dog had come there from another place and was not able to get along with other dogs in the area. She guessed that someone might have abandoned her because everyone wants to own a cute puppy, but when they get bigger, they become a burden.  “Too much pee, too much poo, too much this and that!”

The moment we met this black dog, she won our hearts. We could not just leave her there because I felt like her cute puppy eyes were seeking help. Since both me and my friend already had adult female dogs in our house, adopting her was not possible for us. Therefore, my friend Aasutosh called one of his friend and explained the situation.  Aasutosh’s friend Dibesh readily agreed to adopt her. It was almost 8 pm and very dark when we got to Patan from Pashupati and gave Pinchu to Dibesh. Dibesh is the one who named her Pinchu because she has spiky hair.

Pinchu's wound is healing

Pinchu had a deep wound on her back when we met her that day. After few days, we took her to a vet to treat her wound and now the wound is healing. Today afternoon, we paid a surprise visit to Pinchu, and Laxmi auntie (Dbase’s mom) told us that she was scared of dogs previously but Pinchu  pleased the auntie with her jovial nature and she is quite fond of Pinchu now. 

                                         

Until a few days ago I was lamenting how I just dreamed big but never actually worked towards achieving it. Now I have realized that one doesn’t need to do anything huge to make a difference. Even a small step at a time can make a big difference. Looking at Pinchu and her new happy family offered me a great joy and also motivated me to struggle for animal rights. Go feed a stray animal, go adopt an abandoned animal, raise your voice against animal cruelty and advocate for animal rights. If we all did our part, how far could that day be when no animals get abused or suffer cruelty at hands of we humans?

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who are advocating and working for animal welfare. Many thanks to Dibesh and his wonderful family, Aasutosh and Dr. Ram Uncle (Dr. Ram treated Pinchu free of cost) for their help in finding Pinchu a new home. You people are great!

Laxmi Auntie