About Me
My name is Manju Poudel. I am from Nepal. I am a
student at LaGuardia Community College. I was born in a middle class
family in 1965 in a remote village nearby a mountain in Nepal. I have
two older brothers, one younger brother, and one younger sister. We
all grew up in Biratnager, the second largest city of Nepal. I have one son and two
daughters.
I have obtained my bachelor's degree in Arts and Social Science in 1992 from Tribhuvan University of Nepal. I also have a diploma in journalism. I briefly worked as a journalist also, but my main career always remained social work and rights activism when I was in Nepal.
I started my career as a social worker in
1992 by forming a not-for-profit organization called WEPCO. This
organization focuses on household waste management and income-generating activities for women. 
At the same time, I was also working with INHURED
International, a human rights/women rights advocacy organization.
I also had an opportunity of working for World Food Program (An agency wing of the United Nations) as a social worker for two years. My main duties in this job involved ensuring women participation and safeguarding of women’s rights in the physical infrastructure projects of WFP’s food for work program. To comply with my duties, I had to visit remote villages, arrange community planning and project implementation meetings, and educate participants regarding the meeting, women rights and children rights.
My relation and activities with INHURED continued before and after my job in WFP. Basically, I was working against human trafficking, especially, trafficking of Nepali young girls to Indian brothels. I also worked with some of my American friends and formed an organization called Daywalka Foundation. This organization is active against the trafficking on young girls through porous boarder regions between Nepal and India.
My activities against human trafficking in person in general and girls' trafficking in particular have also caught the attention of the U.S. House of Representatives. In recognition of my dedication against girls trafficking the U.S House of Representatives invited me to testify before the One Hundred Seventh Congress of The United States House of Representatives on Foreign Government Complicity In Human Trafficking: A Review Of The State Department's ''2002 Trafficking In Persons Report'' (The Statement I made can be found at http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/107/80288.pdf (page # 73).
Successive governments in Nepal since the first democratic government
was formed in 1950, failed to comply with people’s aspiration for
better life and overall national development. The people’s aspirations
have not been addressed by democratic governments elected after success
by the 1990 pro-democratic movement. This situation raised public
dissatisfaction against government and gave birth to a violent Maoist
movement. As a result, the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation
due to the armed conflict between the Royal Nepal Army controlled by dictator
King Gyanendra and the Maoist ‘People’s Army’ made many people, including
me, flee their homes and their country.
Currently I am in the U.S. preparing myself for better opportunity in my career as social worker and rights activist. My particular career focus is activism against human trafficking in person and for human rights and women rights. In this connection, I am participating in a Summer Study Program in Costa Rica between 29th June and 29th of July 2005.