Help during COVID lockdown

We hope you are happy, and staying healthy, and are bearing up under all the challenges that are facing the whole world. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter every day.  We truly hope you have received either one or both doses of the vaccine. Here in Nepal, most of the seniors (over 65) including my parents have received the first dose. And Nepal has now relaxed visa rules including removing the 7-day quarantine requirement for vaccinated travelers. Read Kathmandu Post article here.

Last year was a crisis year for Nepal, as it was for many countries around the world, and we worked to help as many people as we could. In greatest need were migrant families who were sent home from India and had traveled for days without food. We raised enough money to welcome 19,553 migrants at our borders with much needed meals. We also gave a month of staples to 439 desperate families in a border village that had the first reported case of Covid-19 in Nepal. But, of course, our biggest concern was helping our guides and staff. We distributed three months of food rations to 31 trekking staff and their families, and we also gave one-month of rations to 100 free-lance trekking guides and staff. This gave them time to find alternative work to keep their families alive, though most are currently living hand-to mouth.

According to the Nepali Times, more than 30 expedition teams (around 300 climbers) will be attempting to scale Everest this year. But trekking tourism still has not resumed – just a few trekkers this season. We are hopeful that trekking will pick up in the Autumn season, but meanwhile we have put twelve of our trekking staff to work on our construction projects in the Kanchenjunga region. They are almost done building our first hostel in Hangdewa and will soon celebrate with an inauguration event. The hostel will house 32 girls, including dorm rooms, kitchen, dining room, and toilets. They will then move on to build a second hostel in Tembe and, if we can raise additional funds, a small school for toddlers in a mountain village and even a small library at a school in Yamphudin, the site of the first school we built nearly 10 years ago. 

We are excited about these hostels because they will make secondary school possible for girls who would not otherwise be able to continue their educations. The hostel will be free of charge so girls from impoverished families will finally have access to regional secondary schools. Most girls in Nepali villages are married soon after completing elementary school, so these hostels will allow girls to avoid child marriage and pursue careers as teachers or government workers, or possibly even receive vocational training to work as nurses, seamstresses, and the like. 

We thank you very much for the contributions you generously gave us last year and in the past. If you are interested in helping more, the economic crisis from this pandemic has lasted longer than we anticipated, so we still need funds to keep our construction projects going and help our struggling staff in Kathmandu. Our partner Global Pearls, a 501(c)3 based in the U.S., is committed to matching every donation made to our projects – meaning every dollar donated to 3 Summits Nepal will actually be doubled!  Donations can be made using this link and you will receive a receipt for tax purposes.

https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=A569WWKRXUR5L&source=url

Check out photos of the new hostel below: