Santosh recently earned an MBA from an American University and started a website, amputeefitness.com, to help amputees stay fit, healthy, and happy.
But his early childhood couldn't have been more different.

What happened to me was for a reason
By Santosh Basnet

I was born in a very poor family in a remote village in Western Nepal. I was brought up with an extremely abusive, alcoholic father and five siblings to share what little we had. Excessive work in the farm, not enough to eat, no school and on top of that getting beaten almost every day for no reason was what my childhood like.

One day when I was about nine, my mother was cooking in the kitchen when my father walked in, so drunk he could hardly stand. Before I could make any sense of it, he went crazy and just lashed out at her. That was it! I grabbed him and pushed him to the wall as hard as I could. His drunken body hit the wall and fell on the floor. Realizing what would happen if I stuck around, I took off without looking back.

There was no going back home. I had no money to buy a bus ticket so some of my friends loaned me whatever they could. The money was enough to get me to a town I had never been to called Malekhu.

I was alone, scared, hungry and stranded. Not knowing what to do or where to go, I found a corner and just sat there, hoping someone would give me money to buy another bus ticket. However, nobody even looked at me. After about six hours, a man approached me and offered me a dishwashing job which pays 100 rupees (equivalent to $1.25) a month. I gladly accepted the offer. Although I had to wash dishes from 5 am to 12 midnight every day, I didn’t complain.

One evening, I grabbed a pitcher to fetch the water. A couple of little kids were running around chasing each other. I wished I could play like them. When I was just about to cross the road I saw a big truck approaching, so I stopped. When the truck was really close I felt the kids playing behind me accidentally push me and then everything went black. When I opened my eyes, I was lying on the road. There was a lot of commotion. I was surrounded by people and wondered why. I felt completely soaked with blood, but didn’t realize what it was.

My arm and every single bone in it was crushed and the truck partly crushed my right forehead as well and broke my lower jaw to the point that it was separated. There were no hospitals or clinics nearby, let alone an ambulance. The nearest hospital was in Kathmandu, and it was a good three hours drive. So people put me on the same truck, turned it around and took off to Kathmandu.

Read on to learn how Santosh was rescued by Olga Murray and NYF.