Yeshi doesn’t have an exact answer to the question of where she is from:
I belong to two countries. I was born in India, but I was a refugee there. Actually, I’m from Tibet.
Yeshi takes pride in her heritage and hopes one day to be able to return to Tibet. In the meantime, Yeshi relocated to Canada in 2016 to secure a better future for herself and her child.
Her desire to serve the Tibetan community has been at the forefront of her actions since she was a child. Yeshi now works with Tibetan and Indian mothers in her community as a HIPPY Home Visitor in Vancouver, BC.
One of Yeshi’s favourite quotes is by Hafez Ibrahim: “A mother is a school. Empower her, and you empower a great nation.” She believes that this sentiment is carried out through her work as a HIPPY Home Visitor, and she is proud to be a part of the program.
Yeshi believes her greatest impact among her HIPPY families is that she can relate to them on a cultural level and teach them in mini-lessons that, while the kind of play they do back home is good for the child, explicit instruction focused on basic skills, such as how to write and how to colour, is equally important. Her advice to newcomer mothers:
You have to better take care of your child because we have lots of opportunity here. They are the future nation, our Canada. We have to empower the mothers and the mothers will empower the nation.