Rajeev Goyal Listens to the Villagers of Nepal

Last weekend I attended a fundraiser at New York University Law School raising money for Krisiko Asha (Hope for Agriculture). In terms of the philanthropic world, the evening was microscopic in purpose, serving to advance sixteen tiny villages in the remote hills of Nepal, a small, poor Asian country. The room was full of Nepalese, Indians, a smattering of returned Peace Corps Volunteers and a few others with interest in the Himalayan country.

Rajeev Goyal, the Indian-American impresario of Krisiko Asha and a returned Volunteer who had served in these very villages from 2001-2003 and has traveled back ten times, implored the participants to contribute to the cause. Members of his immigrant family and friends raised their hands again and again, and the event netted around $15,000, an amount that many upscale charities would have considered pathetic for all the effort and energy.

I left that evening not thinking that I had seen a quaint sideshow irrelevant to the world and its purposes, but something of importance. Americans are obsessed with size, not only in our homes and our hamburgers but in our supposed help to the rest of the world.

For half a century the West has poured trillions of dollars in foreign aid into the so-called developing world. In her passionate polemic Dead Aid, Dambisa Moya writes that in Africa most of this money has propped up corrupt elites, and little of it has advanced the economic fortunes of beleaguered, impoverished peoples. Such arguments appeal to conservatives who for decades have condemned foreign aid as an unholy waste. But it is progressives who should be the most upset at the massive misuse of foreign aid. There may be few things as pleasurable as the public profession of virtue, but there are few things worse than pretending to help someone when all you do is hold him down until he drowns.

In her recent book The Blue Sweater, Jacqueline Novogratz is almost equally devastating about the squandering of aid as Moya, but Novogratz and others have found a third way through entrepreneurial ventures to advance the fortunes of the poorest of peoples in Africa and Asia. Many of these ventures are headed by talented immigrants to America who made their fortunes and have returned to their lands of birth to help their people. That is just one way, one vector among many. Through out the developing world, beneath the noses of the mandarins of aid are an amazingly diverse series of undertakings, foundations large and small, NGOS, and entrepreneurial experiments that truly have helped people. The successful projects are run by those close to the people and understanding of the local culture.

Novogratz's mentor John Gardner, the founder of Common Cause, told her that in philanthropic ventures "the most important skill needed is listening." The Hope for Agriculture project is about listening. Rajeev raised the money to build five new schools in those hills. They are not the traditional whitewashed, two-story buildings that are seen all over Nepal. They are colorful, unique buildings true to the cultural traditions and spirituality of a people. They were designed by somebody who listened.

This summer Rajeev is taking the designer of the vernacular schools and a half dozen of the local people, including a former school master, the master builder of the schools, a nursery teacher, an agriculturalist, and two students on a month-long tour of Nepal. They will see what has happened to their country in the last half century in the name of development. They will see the good and the bad. They will see the once enchanted capital of Kathmandu among the most polluted cities in the world. They will see permaculture farms and projects that are virtual gardens of Eden, potential models of a new kind of green revolution. They will explore new ways to build homes and to advance local economies. They will listen. And when they finally return to their home in the hills, the 4,500 people in the sixteen villages will gather together and they will listen to what their neighbors have seen and learned and discuss the future of their community. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal and I plan to travel with the group and report what they say.

These Nepalese hill peoples have always been either ignored or exploited. History, when it intruded upon their lives, was something that was done onto them. They have never had a say. Nobody ever listened. It is an idealistic, even quixotic idea that these few thousand people can make their own futures, but for a moment at least their lives seem full of possibilities they have never had before.

Comments

[DCTom]

This shows it about Rajeev better than I can say it:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/29898341#29898341

[NRSharma]

Kudos to Rajeev and his Krisiko Aasha team for planning a very nice initiative to bring prosperity to villagers of Bhedetar. As an agriculture scientist from Nepal living in Canada, I wish you all the best success in your efforts. I have concerns, however, about the coordination of your work with other INGOs/NGOs and local governmental agencies doing the same kind of work in the area. For example, the area you have been planning your activities, Bhedetar Village Development Committee, if it is the one in Dhankuta District is East Nepal, is one of the areas covered by a multi-million dollar British Govt.-fund­ed Regional Development Project (Pakhribas Agriculture Development Project/ Nepal Agricultural Research Council Program). There are various other local agricultural development agencies working in the area. Similar agencies are working in the area of education, health, etc. Therefore, I would hope that you work in a coordinated way with other agencies so that whatever inputs your team can provide would help in the development in a sustainable way and that your efforts are not wasted.

[chaap]

Thank you Mr. Sharma for your comment.

Definitely we have begun our case studying - pakhribas farm, uttarpani schools and other agriculture organizations not just in dhankuta but also around Nepal - chitwan ecoscentre, ajamvari farm being other places. Our local coordinators have started to get trainings and networking in other farms and agricultural agencies. Though there are many agencies and institutions in Nepal - not all the villagers get the benefits they provide - Pakhribas farm for example is a wonderful research centre but they have left it up to the government to implement their research and promote organic farming in the villages which rarely get filtered down. So our main attempt is to find already existing resources and getting them to connect to the villagers in that specific VDC in which Rajeev has been working for the past 8 yrs- building schools and water project.

The travel happening during the summer will once again reinforce this network and connect our local team to the different green movements in Nepal and India - to give them a hands-on exposure and training and to begin to establish networks to build on with the government as well the ngos. This is a critical step that is needed not just to empower the locals but also to sustain the movement on the long term.

we would love to speak to you more on this regard,

priyanka

[Purushottam Shah]

I can not agree more with Novogratz and Moya about how it is not that aid is not pouring in, it is just that it is not being channeled properly.

And this problem is acute in Nepal as much as it is in African nations. Even ostensibly philanthropic NGOs and INGOs spend most of the allocated money on preparing reports and making plans to attract more funding without actually doing meaningful work for the community. I can say this because I worked with an NGO in Nepal and saw their internal workings. They rarely conducted site visits, when they did, it was to collect nice pictures to show to the donors and include it in their project to make it look more authentic.

One way to bypass this problem as suggested in the article too, is through immigrants who come to the United States or other developed nations for higher education.

[Paramendra Bhagat]

As a Nepali and a personal friend of Rajeev, I am so very glad to read his name here. http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com Thanks for highlighting the amazing work he has done over the years.

[Laurence Leamer - Huffpost Blogger]

"truth at Bugmenot" is right. Nepal is small but there are many smaller countries. i went ahead and changed that. As far as how the trip will be financed, my understanding is that some of the money raised that evening will be used, but it's not going to be terribly expensive. The group will travel by bus in the Terai and by foot in the hills.

[roka]

i am just curious, how these group will be traveling. are they going to use the money raised during the event? if not how will the organization going to manage the cost for the group during their stay in Nepal?

[RajeevKumarGoyal]

No portion of the funds raised at Krisiko Asha will fund travel for any North American traveler in our group. It's a great question you have raised! The $15,000 generated will go towards funding outdoor green classroom initiatives, permaculture and organic farming trainings, agriculture field trips, art and nature competitions for the local schools, development of a green curriculum, and creation of a 10-acre demonstration plot and arboretum. We have a working plan for how to use the funds on hopefor.org though we would love more input! It is a privilege for us to participate and learn...

[chaap]

To re-emphasize on Rajeev's comment- we will not be using the money for our travel funds - as we have been persistently applying for our travel grants through clinton initiatives etc.

The funds raised in the event will be used extremely cautiously on projects for the movement and planning so that it becomes a revolving fund- not a one time investment- with the main emphasis on education of the community - from training carpenters and builders to eco-building in India to teachers on how to hold eco- classes.

To quote our goal from the website - The financial resources will support implementation of the Greening Villages Movement, to empower the 4,500 people in the 16 villages of Bhedetar VDC to develop a proactive and environmentally focused response to globalizing forces. The project will focus on building awareness about conservation of the existing rich ecology, to support and strengthen the farming community with introduction of low-tech sustainable agricultural practices and furthermore to instill hands-on outdoor learning into the school systems. Specifically, the funds will help six local schools develop gardens/outdoor classrooms and environmental learning programs, give farmers organic farming and permaculture trainings, and support the people of Thumki village to develop an agriculture demonstration plot which will enrich 4,500 people.

please email us if you would like detailed info on the budget usage or better yet if you can suggest of better ways in which we can use the fund- let us know as well.

regards,
priyanka

[chaap]

Thank you Larry for listening to us at the fundraiser and for this wonderful article! Thank you mostly for defending the unheard voice of the villagers. They truly have so much to teach us- on indigenous wisdom and spirituality, on what sustainability means in the most raw sense and on how to really live with each other.

excited for what the summer will teach all of us.

best wishes,
priyanka