NA HISTORY

The NA fellowship as it is known today was founded in Sun Valley in the Los Angeles area of California in July 1953. Its principles had been first applied to drug addiction at the US Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky in 1947. The following year, in 1948, meetings were organised in New York City by an ex-addict familiar with the Lexington programme but these groups did not last.

The present NA fellowship was formed by a group of addicts who had been attending regular AA meetings in Sun Valley. They had seen the benefits of the AA programme to recovering alcoholics and decided to set up a similar group for addicts. The first meetings were fairly sporadic and were mainly restricted to California. Over the next few years NA grew very slowly. In the 1980s there was an explosive growth in NA meetings world-wide. There are currently estimated to be 43,900 weekly meetings in over 127 countries worldwide.

How Was Kathmandu ASC Formed ?

NA movement grew in Kathmandu around January in 1997. There were only few recovering addicts to stay clean and started their meetings in a week. Initially only a few guys used to come to the meetings sometimes even stayed~ always hoping that some one will come to attend a meeting. After a year or so, a few guys went back to using and several newcomers started coming, and so the group grew slowly but steadily. They were all excited and they helped other recovering addicts to start new meetings in other cities besides Kathmandu. They were euphoric and high from the miracles of what had been happening.

Then the problems started. Two of the addicts who had made contribution in growth of NA moment in Nepal started having different of opinions in the group matters may be their egos got in between them, and as a result the group started splitting in two parts. The newcomers, and the old -timers started taking sides there was no neutral group. You had to take sides in each and every meeting they started fighting with each other not only in business meetings, but also in recovery sharing meetings one side would blame the other for the problems. So then newcomers who used to come to the meeting to share and feel safe and comfortable, became confused seeing us fight and some of them stopped coming to the NA meeting. 

It went on for couple of years, but later on everybody realized what was happening to the group. We had a wage business meeting and the group got divided and started another group by mutual understanding. Things settled a bit but even this didn't help much. One group never went to another group meeting even if it was convenient for them. So then problems with translation and other service work arose. One group always tried to dominate the other. Everybody started looking for solutions. Some even asked for suggestions from WSO and everybody came to a conclusion that we should have an Area Service Committee.

So finally they formed the ASC in the end of 1999. After NA started in Kathmandu, ASC things are still not okay but it is lot better than before the old timers who had ego problems realized their mistakes and even asked for the forgiveness from the group and newcomers since then things started getting better. We translated few IPS and did some H&I work and activities like convention & campouts.

We still fight with each other in business meeting, but now the motives are different. Now we fight FOR the group. We are still on shaky ground but we can see the bright future if we can only set the personalities aside and think about the principals. That is why principles before personalities is very important in all aspects of NA, not just in service groups but in meetings as well.

Now, since 2003, our Kathmandu ASC is smoothly running and more groups have formed for example: NA Nepal Keep Coming Back Group and Hand in Hand Group. In 2004, the first night meeting was named and NA Evening fellowship formed. After 2004 the group rapidly grew and the life line group in Pulchock started a meeting~ and in 2005 more groups were established. They were NA We Can Group and NA God's Will (The first morning meeting in Kathmandu), NA Never Alone Group, NA Be Here And Now and even in Bhaktapur City the group called "Be clean NA" started so in various places NA meetings were spreading in Kathmandu. Now in KTM ASC has 13 home groups, which are registered in ASC and WSO respectively and 13 meetings are running weekly. ASC Kathmandu runs ASC meeting once a month and on every Saturday each subcommittee meets in ASC office at sitapaila to reports its activities and discuss how we can better carry the message of NA to addicts who still suffers……

since the group is getting bigger, controversies arise in the group. Politics seem to be playing its key role that's why the group formed KTM ASC. We are experiencing difficulties in translation and literatures distribution due to lack of funds. Due to this same reason, sometimes we are unable to support our fellow addicts who are out of Kathmandu valley. but now we have Nepal region which supports all 6 ASC.

Due to the lack of awareness information lots of addicts do not work the steps, and as a result Most of them return to active addiction. We've been unable to emphasize on the importance of step work. In conclusion with the help of all addicts, groups, committees of Nepal and other countries especially India and USA the NA movement is gathering its momentum. We would like to thank all those who help us in various ways. We are very thankful to NAWS, APF and IRF for their continuous support for us.