Kumudini Koirala

Cordinator,
Oratech Social Initiatives

I have spent most of my life as a teacher: parked in front of a huge pile of answer sheets, correcting them with my trusty red pen; standing before a class of undergraduates, ready to teach them electric circuitry and instrumentation; or playing with my children — a crayon in my right hand and a sheet of paper in my left.

After working as an associate professor at the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, for 25 years, I have realized the value of not only receiving a good education but also of sharing it. In these years, I have come to dwell in a simple reality: teaching has no level or magnitude. Helping my students learn new engineering concepts in class or helping my children learn new words at home, the experiences were different but they always culminated in the same feeling — satisfaction.

While teaching has taught me a lot, being a mother has taught me even more: to love infinitely, to deeply consider the implications before making decisions, and to tackle every problem as a new adventure. Helping my children grow up into healthy adults required the same values I learned from my profession. I have seen the attention and devotion I gave to their education during their earliest, most pivotal years helped instill a love of learning in them.

The same growing love they had for learning, I felt, also needed to spill over into other areas of their development. One of these areas that concerned me was their health. Navigating parenthood with my husband, a dentist by profession, I saw how essential oral health is for young children. Their early eating and oral hygiene habits molded their overall health and attitude, which would shape their entire lives.

In these years, I have also seen how neglected oral health is in our country. In the many free oral health camps I accompanied my husband to, I’ve interacted with children living without access to toothpaste and toothbrushes, parents unable to tell if their kids have cavities, and school teachers incapable of teaching their students basic oral sanitary practices. A realization that became a focal point in my life was the importance of not just molding children’s behavior but also educating parents and primary school teachers in cultivating good oral health habits among their children from an early age. This insight shapes our principles and inspires our mission at the Chetu Kids Club.