Through Sambhawana, she along with her team have been running various programs, one of the successful ones being Civic Schools—the idea which was born while she was a part of the US Department of State's Community Solutions Program. It was enlisted among the top eight out of 66 other ideas.Anita, however, did not have plans to work for the community issues right from the start. In fact when she first completed her SLC, she was determined to pursue engineering. She then decided to take a psychological career test, which was very popular during that time. The result revealed that there was more of a banker in her. Following the advice, she then took BBA. Attempting to like the subject, she interned in various corporate houses and banks but that only made her realize that she was not the type of person who enjoyed desk work. She loved travelling and she was passionate about helping. But it was only after her MBA that she decided to walk on the path of social work, which prompted her to work for her current NGO, Sambhawana.
Looks like it took you a long while to realize your passion. When exactly did it strike that social work was your true calling?
I guess I discovered my passion during my tenure in Youth Initiative, where I had been involved in from quite a young age. I started travelling more and getting involved in social work. It made me realize that social work provided more freedom and opportunities to interact with interesting people. There also isn't any hierarchy in there which makes things even more comfortable. But it was only while pursuing my postgraduate degree that the feeling grew stronger. Only then I firmly decided to get actively engaged in social work. I then did my postgraduate diploma in Women Studies from Tribhuvan University and later took a four-month course in Conflict Transformation and Tolerance in the US.
What are the main challenges you face? Does being a woman make any difference?
The nature of my work demands that I travel extensively. And from the very beginning, being a woman had made it very difficult hard for me to travel on my own, especially on residential camps. Before I got married, I had to come up with some really good explanations for my family. Now that I'm married, I don't need to come up with explanations, but I need to keep my family, my daughter in mind before making a travel plan.
Apart from that, being a mother does come in the way of one's career. There is always a choice to be made—your child or your career? More often than not, I end up choosing my daughter over my career. I believe that's only natural given that I absolutely treasure her, like every mother does her child. But then, since I have been working for so long, I would not want to ignore it completely. Therefore, I solve the problem by taking her everywhere I go. Since my husband is also involved with Sambhawana as the founding president, we share the responsibility together. We can't do that all the time though. For example, when she was nine months old, I had to leave her with him for a week while I attended an international program. It was difficult for both of us.
What career advice do you have for the youth?
From my personal experience, I would like to tell young people today that you might not realize your passion right away. Experimenting with things and exploring different fields might help you. Besides, whatever career path you choose, do get involved in community work because you're a part of it and if you help make it better, ultimately you're at its receiving end.
What about your future plans?
I actually wanted to travel abroad, study for some time and come back. But now that I have a daughter, I plan to stay here for a while until she is big enough to understand and then maybe leave for further studies.
Through Sambhawana, we plan to expand Civic School and maybe take it outside the valley. Right now we're focusing on both private and government schools and we plan to continue with that.
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