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>> Our new program in Nepal on its first birthday

A brief update, as AVP Nepal recently (and quietly) celebrated its first birthday of existence.

In April and May of 2008, the first 2 Basic workshops were held in Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu.

Since then, we are pleased to report, 12 more workshops completed successfully. This includes an intensive series of 7 workshops of all levels that has produced a pool of 31 trained Nepali facilitators.

Eight of these newly trained facilitators have gone on to facilitate their first workshops and others are keen to try their hand. Locations of our workshops to date range from the government training centre with lights and fans, to rural classrooms with no windows and partial walls, local children looking in with curiosity. Participants have been human rights and social activists, students, and rural folk straight from their fields and a 3-hour bicycle journey. Laughter, tears and heartfelt sharing have been the common factors in all, proving again that AVP can tap what humans are about wherever they are.

Nepal has never been more divided politically and socially. After a 10-year communist insurgency, subsequent election and recent resignation of a Maoist government communal violence has broken out and threatens to escalate across the country.

AVP potentially has a lot of work to do. We realize, however, that the transformatory power of the workshops requires a high commitment to quality and getting the steps right. We are also trying to keep as much as possible of the spirit of voluntarism, balancing this with the realities of life in a developing country.

In Peace, Ken and Subhash

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