Education
At ten she left school to sell handmade goods. Today she fights poverty for a living.
Chandani dropped out in fourth grade because her family could not pay the fees. One mentor and one program put her back in a classroom.
In 2006, Chandani was ten years old and living with her family in a one-room home in Nepal. There was hunger in that room, and there was violence.
Her father's work was seasonal and could not cover school fees. Chandani and her sister dropped out. She was in fourth grade. Instead of going to class she sold handmade goods to help her family get by. School, she has said, felt like a luxury she could never afford.
Then a mentor introduced her to Room to Read's Girls' Education Program, which supports girls through school and teaches the practical life skills that help them stay there.
Chandani went back. She became the first person in her family to graduate. She kept going, and earned a master's degree in public administration.
Today she works in a government office in Nepal's Koshi province, leading programs that tackle poverty in rural communities: the kind of community she grew up in. She says she still uses the life skills she learned in the program.