He joined Nepal Red Cross as a development worker and then moved on to working in international organizations in Nepal for about 10 years. In 2001, he went to Afghanistan to work as an International Program Manager there, for three years. At the end of his three year tenure, he was given the position of Country Director for Save the Children UK in Afghanistan.[break]
Puri joined Room to Read in 2012, just six months ago. Talking about the organization, he shares that the vision of Room to Read is quality education. “To achieve quality education, we believe that there should be two things; literacy skill and gender equality,” says Puri, adding, “We are focusing on primary school because that is the foundation.” The flagship project of Room to Read is to establish libraries in schools in Nepal. “If a school has a proper library with reading materials, it provokes children to read more, both for knowledge and joy,” Puri says. Room to Read has setup more than 3,500 libraries in Nepal. Apart from that, the organization also publishes books for small children and has come out with 250 books so far.
“In Nepal, the challenges for education are in its quality,” he says. “In rural areas, the government has spent a lot of money to increase the enrollment ratio but the learning and writing habits of the students are poor,” he adds. On top of that, gender is also an issue. “If you look at the government data, in grade one, the enrollment ratio of girls and boys is equal but the survival rate is low. By grade six only 60% of the girls remain and by grade 9 or 10, this comes down to 30%,” informs Puri. There’s also an issue of teachers not being sufficient in schools in remote districts as well as insufficiency of students in other community schools.
When it comes to inspirations in his personal life, Puri says that it’s hard to pin point one person or event as there are many events and individuals who have inspired him, in the course of his professional career. However, he says, “I always draw inspiration from my childhood because until the age of 10, I didn’t have the opportunity to study. So I think about all the other children who must have faced that. Hence, education has been the key component of all my works.”
Puri urges everyone to work towards providing quality education to children and says, “Let us work to establish libraries in all the 34,000 schools in Nepal. Let’s make libraries accessible to children.”
Puri was featured on “Inspirations: The essence of life”, a personality-based television series presented by Media Gallery and Global Exposition and Management Services in association with Republica. The program is aired on Nepal Television every Wednesday at 10:10pm
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