Himalayan Community Support

Nepal Projects Newsletter

We have issued an updated Newsletter concerning our current projects in Nepal, for your copy please download the PDF document:

Nepal Responsible Tourism Projects Newsletter - 04/08/10

Where in the world?

The Himalaya is by many measurements the greatest of all mountain chains. Separating the Indian sub-continent from the great plateau of Tibet it runs in a great arc from Pakistan in the west, through India, Nepal, Bhutan and China. But like many other areas of the world the differing communities and environments that make up this mountain wonderland are under constant stress and strain.

What are we trying to do?

Exodus have been organising tours and treks to this region for 35 years and have developed many long lasting partnerships and friendships with our operators and leaders as well as some of the local communities we visit. It therefore has been only natural for us to seek out ways to give something back; but with such a large and diverse area to cover how do we decide what to do? Well, we look for small-scale practical projects that can help local communities and preserve or improve the environment, whilst giving the maximum possible long-term economic benefit. This means we have focused on supporting children and their educational needs, supplying basic resources to communities, such as fresh water and sustainable wood supplies, as well as introducing some alternative technologies to help the environment. We also believe in being responsible and fair to our staff by training, equipping and paying them properly for the amazing work they do.

How did we set it up?

In essence we have just built on foundations laid down 35 years ago, but perhaps a major turning point came in 2002 when we started supporting the Nava Kiran Orphanage in Kathmandu. Over the next few years we raised the money to build an entirely new home for the orphans and are now involved in helping fund their education. In addition we also support several other schools and children's education.

An exciting new project for us in 2010 is a tie up with the Esther Benjamins Trust (EBT). Founded by Philip Holmes, the Trust focuses on improving the lives of Nepal's most vulnerable children and young people. The EBT refuges in Nepal provide full time care for children who are "at risk" of being trafficked or of domestic or sexual abuse - an indispensable safety net. The facilities cater for 140 children (boys and girls) at three centres; Kathmandu, Hetauda and Bhairahawa, south Nepal.

Also new in 2010 is a tie up with HAMWWA (High Altitude Mountain Workers Welfare Association), a small self help group of Nepali sherpas helping the children of sherpas who have lost their lives trekking or climbing. We have also put water pipes and solar lights into villages, provide long term support to a tree nursery and have been installing solar cookers in several areas to help the environment. Whilst solar cookers are mainly utilised in teahouses where trekkers need boiled water, we are now providing smokeless stoves in some of the villages off the main trekking routes.
In Ladakh we have helped people rebuild homes after freak flash floods and we are now focussing on trying to reduce the amount of plastic mineral water bottles in the Markha Valley, the main trekking route in Ladakh. Mineral water bottles are the bane of life in Ladakh. Glass and tin are bought by outsiders and taken to other parts of India to be recycled whereas plastic mineral water bottles weigh so little it is not worth anyone taking them to recycling plants in other parts of India. High pressured or boiled and filtered water can be provided by the Women's Groups who operate the tea tents (and home stays) all along the Markha Valley. We have also provided money for an all season greenhouse for a school for disabled children in Ladakh.

What do we want to achieve in 2010?

Obviously as much as possible, but our key aims are:

Nava Kiran

• £2000 to help with the school fees of the children who are not sponsored
• £300 for an outing

Kaliaka School

• Sponsor one teacher for 2010 - approx. £500

Thulopatel School

• · Pay one teacher's salary from Sept 2010 to Sept 2011 - approx. £960.
• Provide science equipment so the science teacher can demonstrate practical lessons to the children
• Provide children's story books in English for the school library.

Solar Cookers

• Pay the final 15 solar cookers and install them. Rs26,000 is the cost of each cooker (approx. £250), plus transport to site (approx. £50 per cooker). We have paid half the money and still have to raise the other half (£1875) plus transport for all cookers (approx. £1000).

Smokeless Stoves

• Install 28 smokeless stoves into a village off the main trekking route. The first village we have chosen is Thulopatel, where we already support the local school. The cost of purchasing and transporting the stoves to the road head will be approximately £1500. We hope to install more stoves in selected villages depending on available funds. One stove is being tested in Danda Kharka in summer 2010.

Braga Tree Nursery

• Continue to pay an annual salary of approx £520 to maintain the nursery.

Danda Kharka

• £518.20 has been raised and donated already by Mr & Mrs Dawson for this village for 2010. Chewang Sherpa visted the village in January 2010 to talk to the villagers about what they want for their village. British Airways have kindly added another £500 to this fund. Chewang Sherpa, who is from the village will talk to the villagers in summer 2010 about what they want for their village. This money will be spent on Danda Kharka once the villagers have decided what they want

HAMWWA

• Donate £700 a year to pay towards the education costs of children who have lost their father in climbing or trekking accidents

Ladakh Project

• Help a disabled children's hostel in Chushot village. They need an all season greenhouse, seeds and gardening tools so they can be taught how to grow their own vegetables all year round. The cost of the greenhouse is IC16,000 (approx. £234)
• To ban plastic mineral water bottles, and use water filters instead in the tea tents and homestays along the Markha Valley trekking routes. Cost still being investigated.

Esther Benjamins Trust

• Donate £4,000 a year to their projects.

Emergency Relief

• Keep about £500 in the emergency relief fund. In spring 2010 part of this fund went to help one of our porters who went deaf suddenly. We brought him to an ear doctor in Kathmandu and he can now hear with the help of an hearing aid. Without our support he would not have been able to afford to come to Kathmandu or for the tests or hearing aid.

What can you do to help?

Although Exodus staff and our local partners and leaders put in a huge amount of time and effort, we do rely on raising the majority of the vital funds from our clients and other well-wishers around the world. These are vital and very welcomed by the communities we support. Over the years Exodus trekkers and travellers to this region have been sponsored for their treks or have run marathons at home, others held cake fairs at schools, sold souvenirs obtained in the Himalaya, or even donated money in lieu of wedding gifts. However the funds are raised, a few pounds, dollars, euros or rupees can and do make a real difference to the lives of many and help maintain the amazing mountain environment that we go so far to see. On certain trips to the Himalaya you may be able to donate locally (especially in Kathmandu), or on your return through Friends of Conservation in the UK.
In addition, clients visiting Ladakh this year can help by bringing any old gardening tools with them which they can give to the leader in Delhi and we will make sure they get to the hostel.
Clients travelling to either Ladakh or Nepal can help by bringing children's story books out for school libraries. Easy reading books with pictures are most useful. We are helping with the libraries in Thulopatel and Gairimudi Books would also be appreciated at the disabled children's hostel in Ladakh.

Would you like to know more?

You can contact our Exodus Himalayan Operations and Project Manager Valerie Parkinson by e-mailing her at valeriepark59@tiscali.co.uk

View last update: July 2010

Nava Kiran
• The children’s school and college fees are all paid up to April 2010. See our newsletter for more details.

Thulopatel School
• A teachers salary has been paid from September 2009-April 2010.
• 54 chairs have been delivered to the school and are now in use.

Gairimudi School
• · 60 chairs have been delivered to the school and are now in use.

School sponsorship
• We are paying for the education of 6 disadvantaged children this year.

Esther Benjamins Trust
• We donated £4000 to the trust in July 2010. £1400 will go to buy a generator for the refuge in Bhairahawa. The rest will go towards looking after the other children

HAMWWA
• £500 was donated in spring 2010 for the education of 5 children whose fathers had died in climbing accidents

Solar Cookers
• 30 more solar cookers to be installed in 2010. Please read the Exodus Extracts article from December 2008 edition.

Smokeless Stoves
• We ordered 30 smokeless stoves in April 2010. 28 will go to Thulopatel in summer 2010, 1 will be tested in Danda Kharka and one will go to the porter shelter in Thyangboche in autumn 2010.

Braga Tree Nursery
• Karma and his wife (who run the nursery for us) have been paid until July 2010.

Dandakharka
• Solar lights have been installed in all the Sherpa houses in the village
• The villagers are meeting in summer 2010 to discuss what they need. There is £1000 in the Danda Kharka fund so far this year.

Ladakh Project
• IC 16,000 (approx £230) has been given to the disabled school in Chushot who now have an all season greenhouse.
• In summer 2010 water filters will be distributed to the Womens Alliance tea tents in the Markha Valley.

Emergency Relief
• Laxman Tamang was brought to Kathmandu and sent for hearing tests. He has now returned to his village with a hearing aid.