Arju came to the Indian Village in 2006. Since graduating Pestalozzi World in 2014, Arju has become a licensed Lawyer in Nepal and plans to further her career by studying International Tax Law at the University of Amsterdam.
“The funniest memory about being the Village, was that we had a lot of monkeys in our house and one of them jumped on one of the volunteers and that made us laugh so much. I took a lot of things from Pestalozzi World, but the most memorable part is the friends I made. I miss them, but still today we are there to support each other. I cherish those friends and will do anything to help them out.
When I think of my life before Pestalozzi World and my life after Pestalozzi, I compare it with my sister. My sister studied locally and then decided to study on her own. The main difference between the two of us was that she was very dependent on our parents and I was very independent.
Pestalozzi taught me a lot about independence, self-respect and how you should go ahead with your own passion, your own dreams. I think that is the thing I value the most otherwise I would have been back in Nepal under the restriction of my parents and my society, dealing with the societal values about how a woman should behave.
Now I have my own voice and opinions and that’s how Pestalozzi has shaped me. I think without Pestalozzi I would have been missing a lot of perspective about life.
Everybody should have a choice
At the Village we also learnt that we should be ourselves. There, I also realised what I am actually meant for, due to the everyday guidance, teachings and friendships, and that I can be whoever I want to be. If it hadn’t been for Pestalozzi World, I think I would have been just doing some random course which would have led me onto paths I would not have wanted to go down.
In the end, after I graduated from Pestalozzi World, I went to Kathmandu School of Law and started a 5-year Law course. Unfortunately, because of COVID my bar exam application was delayed, but today I finally I got my licence.
I am now a lawyer, and I can practice legally in Nepal and represent lots of legal cases everywhere.
In the last few years, I have also been contributing my time to help Pestalozzi World support even more children, and I hope to be able to sponsor students in the future too. That’s my goal!
The vital role of education
Recently, I have applied for University of Amsterdam to study international tax law, and I am really happy that I got selected. I will be going next year.
Supporting education is so important, it is the ultimate need, ultimate medium which can bring change in the society.
I humbly ask all of the donors and Trustees to please keep supporting Pestalozzi World, as there are students like us who really want to do great things in life and bring change in the society but are not able to because of the financial burden of education. Thank you.”