Kathmandu:

I think passion goes a long way and hope is a good motivator, as long as you have passion and hope and means to implement it, things are possible,” says Izumi Wakugawa, who is in Nepal since September 2007 and is looking after Global Majority’s Nepal projects.

Talking about her coming to Nepal she says, “Though I had an international career, I was doing mostly academic work. I felt like a hypocrite just doing researches. I hadn’t witnessed real suffering.”

And that was one of the reasons why she decided to come to Nepal. “I wanted to have A first hand experience of living in a country post-conflict and see the nation building process as well.”

She was born in the year Okinawa was returned to Japan and so “it is personally very important” for her. “My father had a US occupation for 27 years and thought we would never be a part of Japan.”

She strongly believes in pacifism as “in the land battle for Okinawa, many civilians were killed”.

“I always wanted to know why people go to war and kill each other,” she adds.

Global Majority is an organisation that was formed by the alumni of her graduate university. “We wanted to build networking among people who are working in the same field and have become practioners of peace,” says Wakugawa.

She is a founding member of Global Majority and has worked as treasurer of the organisation from 2003-2006. She is also one of Board of Directors. For her projects here, it is the funding that this organisation receives mainly through individual donors in California that it is running.

“I consider myself really privileged to have had that opportunity, but I felt that it was time for me to give back as not everyone gets the opportunities I got,” Wakugawa says. She did her Bachelor of Arts in Politics at University of California at Santa Cruz, specialised in International Law and Political Theory, and Master of Arts in International Policy Studies with a Certificate in Nuclear Nonproliferation Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, California. She then worked for the US government in California in the US Navy, National Security Affairs Department.

“I didn’t get substantial satisfaction, I wasn’t really implementing what I was doing, now I feel really liberated as I am doing what I believe in,” says Wakugawa.

Wakugawa is currently organising workshops and trainings. She conducted Peace and Peace building Approaches for Masters and Doctorate degree students at Kathmandu University with help from Dr Bishnu Upreti. The other one was a three day workshop on Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation along with National Media Development Center. This was arranged with the Bishnu Sharma from NMDC.

“We had people from different sectors in our workshops from politicians, students and those working in various organisations. I think it was the first time such a combination was there and was a success,” says Wakugawa.

“It is the youth that I’m very impressed with, especially the graduates that I worked with. Their passion and interest really encouraged me. I think that it is important to invest in the youth of the country as they are the ones who will be making the policies in the future. Thinking of the long term, they need to be invested upon,” suggests Wakugawa.

From her experiences and the things she’s gathered being in Nepal she says, “This country is like a dream place for foreigners. I would like to see peace built here. But not the peace as before 1990 which was a negative one. I would like to see positive peace where everyone gets justice.”

She adds, “I would like to see democracy in this country but I would like to see it built from the bottom up. But the transition is happening really fast. Even in countries like Germany and Japan, it took more than 15 years for it to get properly established. In Nepal, it may take even longer since the starting point is very different. And the multi-ethnic groups present here, I haven’t seen it to this extent anywhere, so that also needs to be taken into consideration.”

“Though I had come for a vacation I got emotionally involved with Nepal and plan to come back. Though I am just doing my small part, I have learnt a lot from Nepal too,” she says. “I would like to make sure that I am not imposing anything. I would like to help to empower local people.”

Wakugawa plans to bring in more international practioners and students for workshops when she returns. “This way you will have freshness of ideas and new perspectives and get a chance to exchange ideas.”