Prisoners Assistance Nepal (PAN) is a unique organization that meets a critical need for many women and children in Nepal. PAN raises adopted and/or fostered children in a house along with several abandoned women. If not for Indira Rana Magar, PA Nepal’s Chairperson, these children would either be incarcerated with their mothers in the very hostile and dangerous Kathmandu prison. PAN also works with these female prisoners providing literacy instruction, legal assistance and advocacy within the prison. PA Nepal’s model allows the children to benefit greatly during their parents’ incarceration as well as after their release. Without literacy, the women are unable to maintain themselves and their children upon their release.
“There are so many women who don’t understand why they are in prison because of poverty and lack of education.”
-Indira Ranamagar, Founder of PA Nepal