From Nov. 8 to 22, 2011, IPJ Deputy Director Dee Aker and Nepal Program Officer Chris Groth traveled to Kathmandu, Birgunj and Pokhara, as part of the IPJ’s Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative. Aker and Groth were joined on this field project by Dr. Donald Gragg, a specialist in addiction medicine, who gave a training with Action for Addiction staff members of the IPJ’s local partner, Sano Paila. The IPJ team also conducted conflict resolution programs with members of civil society, the security sector and political parties. The following is a reflection from the trip by Dr. Gragg.  

It was my great privilege to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my first trekking jaunt to Nepal by accompanying Dee Aker and Chris Groth on a two-week program visit to Nepal. As we approached Kathmandu, the Himalaya Range was shown in full splendor – the best of all my flights into the area. Our arrival in Kathmandu was marked by a crowd of enthusiastic young Nepalis there to greet “Dr. Dee.” I discovered that this was to be the first of many such group greetings, some with large welcome banners greeting all three of us. This was Dee’s 20th visit to Nepal in the past 10 years.

A Maoist Constituent Assembly member presenting me with the TYA Excellence Achiever's Award

The next 12 days were filled with workshops, visits to groups and villages, TV tapings, many meals, much tea and a little sleep. I won’t try to recount all of our activities, but just describe a few of the more memorable ones.

Dee and Chris first conducted a mediation training session with young women from the armed police force, political parties and civil society before I joined them to visit the United Nations Development Program office. My impression was that of good people working hard, but unfortunately entangled in bureaucracy. Most of the next day was devoted to a visit to a college training students for work in hospitality and tourism, where Dee and I, together and separately, were interviewed for broadcast on Nepal TV. Today’s Youth Asia (TYA), a Nepali NGO and a partner in the IPJ’s Nepal project, is a multimedia training and production house. They have a regular nightly show on Nepal national TV, and our interviews were broadcast while we were in Nepal. TYA presented me with an Excellence Achiever’s Award and Chris with a Youth Leadership Award before we departed. These presentations were also slated for national TV.

Dee and I dancing with the children at Raksha Nepal’s school

One of the more unique experiences of the trip was a visit to Raksha Nepal (RN), a program for girls and women who have escaped from forced prostitution. RN has dormitory facilities, counseling programs and a school to teach basic skills and some vocational training. It also operates a school for the children of these women, and we had an opportunity to hear them sing Nepal’s new national anthem and even do a dance with them.

We took a 17-minute flight from Kathmandu south to Birgunj on the border with India (a rough 5-hour drive) where we again had a mass welcome. We drove the half-hour from the airport to our hotel in an SUV with a banner flying from the front fender like we were some major officials. We had two motorcycle escorts in front and behind us with their own banners. The banners were the flag of Sano Paila, the NGO that was hosting our visit to Birgunj and is doing some fantastic work in this depressed area. They initiated an effort along with the district police chief that resulted in many acres devoted to growing marijuana being changed to other crops such as rice, which was covered by Al Jazeera.

Participants in the Action for Addiction workshop

We spent one day in the remote village Nichuta outside Birgunj working with a women’s group to help them learn how to more effectively exert influence for improving their schools, roads and health care. The next day I conducted a workshop with 14 young and energetic volunteers who are developing a residential treatment program for intravenous drug abusers, while Dee and Chris worked with another group on ways to get a sugar mill back into operation to provide jobs and a market for sugar cane.

We took the short flight back to Kathmandu for an overnight at our hotel, The Malla, which is where I stayed 20 years ago. Before we left for the 5-hour drive west to Pokhara, we had breakfast at the home of a senior Nepali Congress Party official and his wife. On the way to Pokhara we stopped and visited three state schools that had libraries provided by Room to Read. It was refreshing to see these young children enthusiastically reading, particularly those at a school for the deaf who “read out loud” – signing with American Sign Language as they read.

Machapuchare (“Fish Tail”) from Pokhara

The most remarkable thing about Pokhara for me was the mountains. These were the mountains I hiked around 20 years ago, and the weather was so clear it almost seemed like you could reach out and touch them.  Unfortunately I had a cough and fever the whole time in Pokhara, but I still got to visit two village women’s savings and loan clubs.  The women deposited the equivalent of $1.25 per month and received 8 percent interest. One club with 200 members had $50,000 in equity and another with 300 members had $100,000 in equity. The money was loaned out at 14 percent interest to members to set up small businesses, such as buying a goat to sell the milk or a flock of chickens to sell the eggs.  While I ate soup and stayed in bed to attempt a recovery, Dee and Chris conducted another workshop for young leaders in the area.

Another bumpy 5-hour drive back to Kathmandu was followed by a night to repack, say goodbye to many wonderful friends and then depart on the long flight home. Antibiotics, soup and rest ultimately conquered my malady, which a subsequent x-ray showed to be pneumonia.

Talking with schoolchildren in Nichuta

There are two things that stick with me the most about the trip. The first is the enthusiastic, intelligent young people who are determined to improve life in their country. The second is the way that Dee and her program have offered help to these young people and influenced their development as leaders. The IPJ’s Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative has spread many seeds to prevent and/or resolve conflict. These seeds have fallen onto fertile soil in Nepal, and it is obvious that many of these seeds are prospering and having a positive influence on Nepal as it evolves into a new democratic republic.

“Dr. Dee, we must take you to Siraha. It will be a quick trip. Two hours. We will visit one village and be back in plenty of time for your flight,” said Santosh Shah, president of Today’s Youth Asia, an IPJ partner organization. Those infamous last words were spoken in January 2010 during Dee’s trip to Janakpur in the Terai region of southern Nepal. The “two-hour trip” turned into a six-hour adventure, which led to a missed flight and subsequent 10-hour overnight drive from the flat plains of the Terai, through the mountains of the Mahabharat Range back to the Kathmandu Valley.

While the numerous checkpoints, traffic accidents and mountain roads provided more than a few nervous moments, the journey was highly successful and marked a turning point for the IPJ’s Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative. It was the IPJ’s first expansion into the historically marginalized central and eastern Terai region of Nepal, as well as our first interaction with Kanchan Jha, co-founder and executive president of Sano Paila (“A Little Step”), a community-based, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization located in Birgunj, Parsa District.

Youth from Sano Paila during IPJ workshop

In the time since that initial meeting, the IPJ has developed a strong partnership with Sano Paila. We returned to Birgunj earlier this month to conduct two programs. The first – “Keys to Community Peacebuilding” – was a training workshop for 40 Sano Paila youth volunteers and members, ranging in age from 19 to 24. Kanchan and his colleagues have established a network of hundreds of youth volunteers, including many students, throughout Parsa District. The long-term goal is for these volunteers to mobilize themselves in awareness raising activities within their villages and schools. During our training, we focused on developing an “organized thinking model” to assist participants with planning and organizing in a systematic manner for future community programs, and spent time discussing communication skills, concluding the day with a simulated press conference to prepare the participants for future media outreach.

The second program – “Finding Common Ground – Building Whole Communities” – involved representatives from local government offices, the Nepal Police, the Armed Police Force, political party representatives, civil society leaders, journalists, lawyers and farmers. Participants were presented with a real-world challenge – the government’s closure of a local sugar mill and what it would take to re-open the facility.

While there is consensus among most citizens that re-opening the mill would be beneficial to the community, as its closure has caused great hardship to laborers and farmers in the region, there are widely diverging views on how to achieve this and what next steps need to be taken. While our program did not provide a quick solution, it did provide key stakeholders with the space to work together to determine the interests of key community members, share options for re-opening the mill and consider next steps moving forward.

A woman receives medical care at Sano Paila's "May Day Program"

During our stay in Birgunj, we witnessed the second annual Sano Paila “May Day Program,” which included a free health camp staffed by local doctors and nurses who volunteered their time; no-cost medications; the distribution of drinking water to members of the community; and an information campaign, including a “street drama” performance by Sano Paila volunteers, designed to increase community awareness about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. The members and volunteers of Sano Paila are an inspiration with their motivation, commitment, energy and desire to change things for the better in their community, and we wish them continued success with their ongoing projects.

Dee Aker is deputy director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) and Chris Groth is interim program officer for the IPJ’s Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative. They were in Nepal from April 24 to May 6, 2011.

For more information on the IPJ’s work in Nepal, please visit: http://www.sandiego.edu/peacestudies/ipj/field/nepal/

Although the IPJ has been working in Nepal since 2001, each trip is unique, and this most recent journey was no exception. While the number of bandhs (strikes) in Nepal has reduced dramatically over the past several years, there has been a recent increase as various groups try to pressure the political parties to move forward on the drafting of a new constitution, currently scheduled to be completed on May 28 (although the deadline will almost certainly be missed).

During our first full day on the ground, we were greeted with shuttered stores and quiet streets as the Newa-Tamsaling Joint Struggle Committee enforced a one-day bandh across the Kathmandu Valley. While the situation paled in comparison to the conditions on the streets in the mid-2000s, the threat of physical assault from protesters if citizens ventured into the streets still existed, and it was enough to restrict nearly all vehicle traffic – a strange site for the normally bustling and overcrowded streets of Kathmandu.

APF escort Eric Henry safely to the hotel

One of our colleagues, Eric Henry (managing partner, CMPartners, CMP), arrived that afternoon and needed to travel from the airport to our hotel. Although tourist buses are usually allowed safe passage around the protests, this can be a slow process. Our colleagues from the Nepal Armed Police Force (APF), who we worked with closely on this trip, offered their assistance and a memorable escort for Eric and our local partner, Santosh Shah (president, Today’s Youth Asia).

While the armed escort was a first, our partnership with the APF began several years prior, and during a meeting in November 2010, the IPJ received an invitation from Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) Shailendra Kumar Shrestha to train a group of senior APF officers in communication techniques in an effort to deepen collaboration and build trust with members of the community. (The AIG is ranked second in the APF hierarchy.) The IPJ and CMP conducted a two-day program – “Advancing Security Interests – Gaining Community Trust” – that provided negotiation skills training for senior command staff.

APF officers practicing negotiation techniques

AIG Shrestha selected the participants – which included deputy inspector generals – based on their ability to train other officers in the negotiation techniques. The program focused on improving the “soft skills” of policing – negotiation and the power of language and persuasion – while emphasizing the use of force as a last resort. The IPJ/CMP team shared skills and international best practices while also engaging the participants in participatory exercises.

An additional request from AIG Shrestha was to include APF women officers in the programs. With the support of our local partner, Women for Peace and Democracy – Nepal, we conducted a one-day program – “Women Collaborating for Security and Peacebuilding” – with a diverse group of women leaders including 10 APF officers, 10 Nepal Police officers, 10 leaders from civil society, and 8 representatives from 4 different political parties.

Women leaders discuss common concerns during the program

This marked the first instance where women officers from the Nepal Police and APF were involved in these programs, and it was the first time that the security sector represented half of all participants at an “IPJ Women, Politics and Peace: Working for a Just Society Series” program. For most civil society and political sector participants, this was their first chance to have an extended interaction with officers, and vice versa. The program allowed the participants to not only work across sectors to explore solutions to a crisis simulation, but also for the women to discover that they shared common concerns – whether it be their own personal security, that of their children/family, or the completion of the new constitution – regardless of what sector they represented.

Dee Aker is deputy director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) and Chris Groth is interim program officer for the IPJ’s Nepal Peacebuilding Initiative. They were in Nepal from April 24 to May 6, 2011.

For more information on the IPJ’s work in Nepal, please visit: http://www.sandiego.edu/peacestudies/ipj/field/nepal/