evolve: What is your intention with Integral Nepal?

Sushant Shrestha: In our own way we are trying to address the effects of Globalization, Modernity and Westernization in Nepal. When I was in Nepal back in 2012 and in 2013 I was talking to people from a few NGO's. One of the pattern that emerges in our discussion was a position of all or nothing: either Westernization and Globalization are bad or good. There was no differentiation. During my time in Nepal I started thinking about how we could approach this issue from an Integral Perspective, because with an integral perspective one can see more nuances.

Gail Hochachka: There is a lot of appropriate critic of westernization and globalization in progressive circles worldwide. We try to value these important critiques, but try to offer new ways of understanding the transition to modernity in countries like Nepal. One important aspect of modernity is for instance rationality. So as a culture like Nepal develops into this modern perspective, it does not mean, that it needs to be the same expression of rationality than in the west.
In countries like Nepal it is especially challenging for young people, because they feel a split in their lives between traditional customs and the fast paced highly globalized Web and Social Media. Are there bridges between those worlds? How can the people maneuver in this meeting of two worlds? The partner organization we are working with, is in the midst of this challenges. And we try to help them to navigate in this dynamic. So we work on building the consciousness and the capacities inside the NGO to be able to respond to this situation form a more integrated perspective.

SuS: The NGO is called Sagarmatha Asahaya Sewa Sangh (SASS) and was established in 2002 to assist destitute women and children in living a respectful life in their own community. They empower women and children who are rejected by their family, because of socio-economic reasons. We formed a partnership with SASS since 2012 and have co-designed this project based on the expressed interest from SASS to learn more about our approach and enhance it’s praxis in community development. We are using Integral model to design this project and we are trying to look at the culture in Nepal and its specific needs. In this work we understand globalization as the development of a global citizenship while maintaining a local culture and local identity.

e: What are you focusing on in your work with SASS?

SuS: Personally I’m very interested in the question, how modernity and postmodernity can look in Nepal. I grew up in 90’s in the US, when in the Internet came just online. I had pictures of Guns n Roses, Nirvana, The Beatles, Dalai Lama, Buddha next to each other on my wall. So for me it was natural to see myself rooted in eastern and western culture.
The children who are growing up in Nepal today have access to the Internet. They see the  freedom and luxury in the west. So they want that. How do we navigate that? In the NGO they have an internship program, where people from different western countries come and spend a couple of months there and work with the children. They come and see that these children don’t have anything and they start buying stuff for them. But that doesn’t work for the organization or for the children. Because the children than want those things and more stuff.
Also, in Nepal there are many ethnic groups. The children that the NGO cares for, come from many different ethnic groups and from minorities, whose family cannot support them. In the last 10 years, there has been a huge movement in Nepal, around unionizing the ethnic groups. So every ethnic group has a union. Every ethnic group looks at SASS and other NGOs like them to see, how the children from their ethnic group are been treated. This puts the work of the NGO in a challenging dynamic. Two or three years ago one of the children got sick. He was rushed to the hospital and died and there was a huge uproar around that. The union thought that the NGO didn’t take care of the children, because they are from this minority. So there is a disconnect between what NGO leaders are trying to do and how the different ethnic group see their work. At SASS they are actually very conscious of the different ethnic backgrounds and teach the students about their own culture and ethnic background. They encourage them to dress up in the traditional clothes of their own ethnic background. They don’t want them to lose that.
They do not want to support a flatland culture where everybody is the same. They are making sure that every kid understands their own culture. At the same time the NGO is making sure that the kids can use western toilets and are taught about hygiene. And in their education, they include the knowledge of the modern world. So they are really conscious about giving the kids a grounding in their own tradition and at the same time want to educate them for a modern world.

e: How do you bring in Integral thinking into the work of the NGO?

GH: First of all, there is a kind of integration, that they are practicing without knowing any explicit integral thinking. That’s something I came across in many development projects, that people have this intuitive sense of integration, because it works and can bridge these kind of dynamics, like Sushant described with the Nepalese kids. I sometimes call it “intuitive integral” or “folk integral”. It also shows, that integral is not just a way of thinking, but a way of being, that people can tap into intuitively. And it also shows that an integral approach is radically practical and it needs to be to effective in the world.

SuS: Also, an integral perspective will have different expressions in different cultures. Every time I’m in Nepal I’m asking my self, what an Nepalese Integral would be? Because there is a certain being-ness in the people there that has its unique quality. For instance in Nepalese culture there is a strong connection between Hinduism and Buddhism, because both religions are very strong. So there is a unique integration of these both tradition with expressions in the arts and in  music. And when I try to feel into what’s a particular sense of being Nepalese, I would say there is a sense of connection, friendliness and openness.

e: In what ways are the kids educated and how do you support their education?

SuS: First of all, SASS provides the kids with an education in alignment with the Nepalese school system, so they learn science, math, Sanskrit and things like that. In addition to that the kids are also introduced to contemplative practices like meditation and yoga. What we are bringing in on top of that is the theme of Global Citizenship. We speak with the leaders and teachers in the NGO about communicating to the kids the global context, that they are living in. Because global citizenship is different from knowing how to use an iPhone. Through the internet the kids are aware of the world, but often only on a superficial level of the things they want to have. What we are trying to communicate the deeper impacts of a global perspective, for instance their responsibility for the future of their county in a global context. But through the internet, the kids are able to move into this kind of thinking, that only a decade ago was not really present in a place like Nepal.

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