It is sometimes difficult to find out what impact our radio programs have on individuals and communities where they are broadcast. In 2007 our staff in Katmandu received a letter from a young teenager from a remote area in west Nepal that had been heavily involved in the conflict:
Nepal & Nepalese are facing dreadful situation since 1994 & have lost many things. We can see that from our history too. I also had faced a very unbearable incident on April 2002. On that day, I was coming back to home from (name removed) finishing my SLC exam. That was the worst day of my whole life, when my father was killed by Maoist. Then me & my brother displaced from our native (name removed) went to (name removed). At that time I was thinking of taking revenge with Maoist by betraying them. My desire was to kill them in the same way, how they killed my father.
But unfortunately, when I started listening 'Naya Bato, Naya Paila' from Radio Nepal, it has changed my mind. After listening it, removing negative thoughts, I've developed positive thinking on me. Now because of this program, forgetting the wrong things of past, I want to give them chance to correct themselves.
The teenager wrote that he would like to become involved with one of the SFCG regional youth leader groups to learn how to engage with the local rebel groups so that he could honor, rather than avenge, the memory of his father.
One of the youth field staff traveled to the western region and met with the young man to hear his story. The young man continues to stay engaged as a youth leader in rebuilding his community as an agent of transformation and renewal, not merely a victim of conflict. Serena Rix-Tripathee, SFCG Nepal country director, says that although this is only one story, hearing it made her and the Nepal staff know how valuable and worthwhile their work is.
